


As Our World Falls Apart

by writewithurheart



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Graphic Description, Sexual Content, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:49:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5484032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writewithurheart/pseuds/writewithurheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zombie Apocalypse AU. A bomb goes off in Starling City causing a panic, a panic that spreads as the event is repeated in cities around the world in the next couple days. The terror only increases as it becomes clear the bombings have other implications: a virus that turns those who contract it into zombies. Once infected, a person could infect others through bodily fluids, and the disease ran rampant. Across the globe small groups of refugees build compounds to stave off the zombie assaults. </p><p>Oliver Queen, an ocean away from home at the virus’s onset, struggles to make it home, to find his family with a ragtag group of friends. But what will it take for him to get home? And what will he find once he finally makes it there?</p><p>When the virus is released, Felicity Smoak is short-listed for a team to find the cure, a team she suspects only wants her for her father’s research, but when the team decides to relocate will Felicity leave Starling and her loved ones behind? Or will she brave the dangers of a zombie-filled world to find those who matter most to her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I: The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, Lovely Readers! 
> 
> This fic has been a long time coming and I am so excited to finally start posting!! Due to the high-action nature of this AU, it's been broken up into five parts (of approximately equal value) that I will post once a day, and ending on Christmas! Please pay attention to the warnings posted with this piece. There are some gory depictions of violence and, yes, sexual content. 
> 
> I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to punchdrunkdoc for being an awesome beta! Also to the incomparable cinnamonirony for her cover art featured below. Mena is a genius!
> 
> This work is part of the Olicity Fic Bang 2015, and I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> <3

** **

 

**Part I: The Beginning**

The sun peeks through the blinds of their downtown apartment, bathing the rumpled bed in strong morning sunshine and shimmering like a halo in the riot of blonde curls currently using his chest as a pillow.

Oliver smiles sleepily at the sight he never tired of waking to. Her warm body presses into his despite the fact that half the bed is vacant, but he isn’t complaining in the slightest as his hand caresses the smooth plane of her back.

She hums in her sleep and burrows into him more, teetering on the edge of wakefulness. She kisses the muscle under her head and sleepily whispers. “It’s too early to be awake.”

He chuckles, a rumble deep in his chest more than an audible sound. “It’s the perfect time to be awake. I leave in three hours for Hong Kong, and I won’t get to see you for three whole days. I need to drink you in now.”

His hand slides from its safe path along her back to grab her beautifully naked ass and press her into him just a little more to make his point.

Sleepy blue eyes lift to his as she twists more against him, amusement prevalent in the uptick of her full lips. “Oh? Is that why you really wanted to stay over? So you could stare creepily at me as I sleep?”

Oliver rolls them over slowly so he’s poised over her sprawled figure as he leans down for a soft morning kiss. “No. I stayed over so I could wake you up, slowly.” He punctuates the words with butterfly kisses as he moves slowly down her body. “I have to make sure you don’t forget me while I’m gone.”

“Oliver,” she whispers breathlessly, as his destination becomes clear, her hands moving to run through his hair.

He smirks against her stomach as he settles between her legs, knowing she’s already wet and willing. She’s still half asleep based on her almost lazy reactions, but her hands on his head are insistent that he continue what he started and Oliver takes to their instruction enthusiastically.

He makes sure to pay attention to the hickies on her hipbone and inner thighs before he brings her completely to wakefulness in the most pleasing way he knows how.

She moans his name as she climaxes and it’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh my God, Ollie! It’s gorgeous!” Thea squeals, her voice jumping up several octaves to the surprise of everyone in the store, although the jeweler behind the counter manages to look unfazed.

Oliver just smiles as he gazes down at the little jewelry box and the simple, elegant ring inside. It reminds him of her and he can already see it in his mind’s eye gracing her finger for years to come, for the rest of their lives, if she’ll have him. He’d almost left it in the store until after his business trip to China. After all, he wasn’t pleased his father was dragging him halfway across the world for a business deal he wasn’t particularly excited about. His father wanted it, but Oliver thought the tech proposed by the Hong Kong-based company was something their own Applied Sciences could come up with if they were asked.

And that opinion was definitely not based on the fact that his girlfriend worked in Applied Sciences, even if she had told Oliver everything that was wrong with their pseudo-AI when she saw the file over his shoulder.

He picks up the box. No, he couldn’t leave something this precious here. He leaves in three hours for Hong Kong, but it doesn’t matter. He needs to feel the weight of the ring in his pocket, in his vicinity. It’s something of Felicity, even if it’s not officially hers...yet.

“I’m happy for you, man,” Tommy announces with a laugh and a firm clap on the back. “She’s gonna love it.”

Oliver snorts. “You haven’t met her yet.”

“Which is a crime! Just because Laurel and I have been...preoccupied with wedding planning doesn’t give you an out for not introducing me to your very serious girlfriend to whom you are thinking of proposing.”

Tommy stares him down, only joking slightly. Because, really? What kind of friend doesn’t have his girlfriend and his best friend meet?

Oliver resists the urge to roll his eyes. Between his schedule, Felicity’s, Tommy’s, and, by extension, Laurel’s, they haven’t had time to sit down and actually meet. “You’ve talked to her on the phone.”

“And she seems lovely over the phone, and even prettier in pictures, but I’d like to meet her before the wedding.” Tommy pauses, “And just so we’re clear, I mean _my_ wedding. No excuses.”

“Dinner, Friday Night?” It’s impulsive. It’s usually movie night, where they end up cuddled on the couch in what Felicity calls their “lazy clothes”. And most of the time she actually makes him pay attention to whatever movie she thinks necessary to beef up his pop culture references. Between her and Thea, he’s starting to actually get references.

“Sure you don’t need to check with the old ball and chain?” Tommy jokes, like he isn’t the one walking down the aisle in less than a month.

“She’s been on my case about meeting you, too.” Oliver’s loathe to admit it, but it’s the truth. As weird as it is, Tommy and Felicity have talked on the phone plenty of times and he just forgets that they’ve never met in person. But Tommy’s been out of the city for the better part of a year helping set up subsidiaries and new offices of Merlyn Global for his father.

Malcolm’s intention to break up Laurel and Tommy through prolonged distance didn’t work as he intended...obviously, considering their impending nuptials.

“Friday it is, then!” Tommy starts detailing wedding plans as Thea excited questions every little detail that now somehow relate to his and Felicity’s wedding, but Oliver’s lost in the gleam of the ring and how he’s going to ask.

At least he has the time in Hong Kong to figure it out.

~~~~~~~~~~

The lights are out when Felicity stumbles into her apartment around midnight. She hadn’t intended to stay late tonight, but the rest of the team was still working on the project, and when Ray Palmer gets going on a project, he forgets the rest of the world exists. It was nights like this when Oliver would rescue her, making sure she had dinner and got to bed at a decent hour.

But he was on a plane to Hong Kong and would probably be touching down soon.

She opens the fridge, the single lightbulb illuminating the room because she was too lazy and tired to turn on any lights. The state of the fridge without Oliver around to actually cook is dismal. Sure there’s food in the recesses of the cold box, but it all requires preparation...which Felicity would fail at even if she wasn’t sleepy.

As the door swings closed, she suddenly spots the container and smiles as she picks up the note folded on top of the square Tupperware:

_Don’t forget to eat well. <3 Oliver_

Sighing contentedly as love swells in her heart, Felicity flips on the tv and curls up on the couch for her dinner. God, she misses that man. Three days. He’ll be home in three days and this weekend she can make up for their time apart.

She picks up her phone and shoots him a text that he’ll see when he lands:

_I <3 u too_

~~~~~~~~~~~

_“Breaking News: There has been an explosion in Starling City Central Plaza. The explosion was focused on the Mayor’s office and the death toll is unknown at this time. First responders are arriving on the scene as we speak. Stay tuned for further updates.”_

~~~~~~~~~

Oliver’s stomach turns as he watches the news over his morning coffee. He pushes the drink away and grabs  his phone. Felicity’s number is punched in and the ringing phone is pressed to his ear within seconds. The call cuts off with a busy signal and he immediately tries his mother and then Thea to no avail.

The news continues to show what footage they have as  Oliver starts to pace. The phone is glued to his hand as he calls Felicity, Thea and then his mother on a loop without success. The pretty blonde anchor urges concerned family members to relax as the cell phone towers in Starling are overloaded with people checking on loved ones, but it doesn’t do anything to deter Oliver.

He’d had a bad feeling as soon as he stepped on the plane, a feeling his father attributed to nerves. But Robert Queen hadn’t been about to let his heir drop out of the business negotiations  with  China. It was part of Oliver’s  deal with his father: he got the money to start up his nightclub, as long as he agreed to learn the family business in preparation for taking  over when the time came.

Honestly, Oliver doesn’t mind the business aspects. What he _abhors_ with his entire being are the tedious boardroom politics, and pretending not to notice the attractive assistants and interns his father always brings on these trips. One of those interns – Katy(short for Katherine, she explained in an excited, bubbly voice on the plane) – is the reason he’s alone in fretting about his mother and his sister. Oliver knows better than to walk into his father’s room during one of these trips.

He learned that the hard way.

Still, the news from Starling is worrying, and Oliver’s tempted to break that tacit rule.

Queen Consolidated’s main offices are right inside the blast radius and blackened and shattered glass is visible each time the camera sweeps back in that direction. A brief mental calculation later, Oliver only gets more nervous. Early morning in Hong Kong equates to  afternoon in Starling, which means lots of people were caught in the crossfire of whatever just happened.

_~~~~~~~~~~~_

_“Reports are coming in that the explosion was a burst gas line in the street. However, no sources can confirm this suspicion. Right now, the main concern is getting the injured to safety and finding any survivors in the wreckage. All citizens of Starling are encouraged to stay indoors and away from the center of the city. As soon as information is known, family members will be contacted. So far we have twelve confirmed casualties, and the numbers are only growing.”_

~~~~~~~~~~

Felicity crowds in the sub-level one break room of the Applied Sciences Building of Queen Consolidated. With her coworkers, she stares at the wreckage of Starling Plaza plastered on the television, phone gripped tightly in her hand. It’s virtually useless to her right now. Security regulations in the building jam all communications once the building goes into lockdown.

And it is in lockdown: lights darkened, doors sealed, and air filters on.  The giant flashing yellow lights which signal a quarantine illuminate the corridors and an automated message plays on a loop over the PA system. Given that dangerous chemicals and weapons are housed in the building, Quarantine drills weren’t uncommon .

But this time, the quarantine isn't  to keep something in. It’s to keep something out.

Some contagion or dangerous particle from the explosion has tripped their sensors. And they were stuck here until either the threat was considered neutralized or someone overrode the lock.

“Please!” Mitchell snorts. “That wasn’t a gas line! Look at the wreckage. This is ridiculous.”

That’s the problem with being in a room full of geniuses when something newsworthy happens: they analyze everything. Felicity probably could have hacked the police channels to find out the truth - you know, if their communications weren’t jammed.

Felicity sighs and leaves the break room to return to her programming and schematics. She might as well get some work done while everyone else gossips. Otherwise she’ll spend all her time worrying about Oliver - who must be going crazy since he hasn’t been able to reach her - Roy, Thea, and not to mention her mother, who will undoubtedly freak out as soon as her call goes through.

But she’s got plenty of work to focus on instead. This nanobot program Ray Palmer asked her to help out with is tricky.

Nothing can get inside their quarantine and if there’s another attack coming, she’s a sitting duck in here anyway. At least work will keep her occupied.

~~~~~~~~~~

_“As rescue efforts continue, the death toll in Starling City continues to rise. Responders have been working throughout the night to free any possible survivors. The Red Cross has set up shelters across the city and those with missing loved ones are encouraged to visit Rocket’s Arena for information concerning the missing._

_What started as a presumed gas leak, experts are now classifying as a terror attack. No group has stepped forward to claim credit for this atrocity, and the police are urging anyone who must leave their homes to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity._

_Similar threats are being reported in cities across the nation, but none on as large a scale as Starling. We have to wonder what the purpose of these attacks really is.”_

~~~~~~~~~~

“We’re just glad the two of you are okay,” Oliver relays, with a glance at his father who leans forward into the lens of the webcam.

Thea snorts in the video. “I wouldn’t call us okay. The whole city is terrified of the next attack. When are you coming home?”

Oliver glances at his father. If he had the choice, they would have been on a plane home as soon as they got the news. Forget the shutdown of air traffic around Starling: he would do anything to hold his little sister and his mother in his arms, to know for sure they’re okay. He would move mountains just to be there to hold Felicity in his arms.

He still hasn’t gotten in contact with her and all Thea knows is that her building is in lockdown.

Robert shakes his head without meeting Oliver’s eyes. “We’re staying until after our last meeting his afternoon.”

“Robert!” Moira responds sharply. “Queen Consolidated’s Headquarters was at the site of a major terrorist attack and you’re staying in Hong Kong for a _meeting_?”

Well, he’s glad he’s not the only one thinking that. But he’s already had this conversation with his father, a conversation that took place while his father played footsy with Katy the Intern - a sight he could really have done without.

Robert, however, was set on his meeting with the head of some Hong Kong company Oliver couldn’t care less about.

“I will not bow to terrorists, Moira. We’ll be home before you know it.” Without so much as a goodbye, Robert cuts the video chat short. “Come on, Oliver. It’s time to leave.”

“Dad, we should get back home,” he insists. “It’s the right thing to do .”

His scowl of disappointment cuts Oliver to the core. He’s fought against that look his whole life, searched for a way to make his father proud, but it seems as elusive as ever. And he’s not about to venture into the crowded Hong Kong streets just for a deal, when they should be headed home.

“If you’re this much of a coward, you’re no son of mine.” He turns on his heel and exits the hotel room.

Katy offers him a sheepish smile before she follows his father out of the room.

A heavy sigh escapes Oliver as he closes his eyes against the twisted mess his life has become. He stares at his phone as if, through sheer willpower, he could get Felicity to call. He just needs to hear her voice, to know she’s fine.

Like a miracle, a minute later it rings.

~~~~~~~~~~

_“The CDC has issued a warning: several victims of the Starling Bombing have started exhibiting strange symptoms. If you or a loved one were in the area, please make sure you have been checked out by a medical official and are cleared of the symptoms._

_If you start to exhibit any unusual urges or don’t feel like yourself, report to the nearest hospital. Thank you.”_

~~~~~~~~~

“Yes, I’m fine, Oliver,” Felicity assures him over the phone as she drops onto the couch having just changed into her most comfortable pajamas. So she’s wearing her softest pajama pants and one of Oliver’s shirts.

She pulls a blanket over her lap and pulls her pint of mint ice cream across the table. WIthout Oliver to cuddle with, this is her best comfort scenario.

“In the morning, I’m heading over to the mansion. Thea already convinced me.” Because she knows he’s going to try. She can sense his worry emanating through the phone lines.  

“Good,” he responds gruffly. Then after a pause, “You scared the life out of me.”

She lowers the spoon back into the ice cream. “Hey, I was just stuck in Applied Sciences for far longer than I should have been. I’ll be here waiting when you get home.”

“I love you.” Felicity hears his voice like he’s right there in the room with her and suddenly the blanket isn’t nearly as comforting as it was a couple minutes ago. She misses the comfort of his presence, the warmth that seeped into her being when he smiles that goofy smile at her. Her hands yearn to touch him, but she can’t.

“I love you, too,” she whispers.

“I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you, Felicity,” he mumbles.

She blinks back tears, the realization of how much danger she could potentially be in washing over her at his words. It had seemed surreal before now, like it was too horrific to actually happen, but it had: someone had set off a bomb in Starling City. Instead of facing her rising hysteria at the idea, she changes topics:

“How was the meeting? You met with them already, right?”

Oliver snorts. “No. It’s this morning. Yesterday was just niceties. There were a lot of rich men in fancy suits and expensive food.”

She scrunches her nose at the idea. Schmoozing. It’s never something she’s been particularly good at. “Was it good food at least?”

“I’ve had better,” Oliver chuckles before he sighs. “Hey, I have to get going. I’ll be home as soon as I can, okay? Be safe.”

She nods into the phone as she takes another comforting spoonful of ice cream. “You too. I love you.”

“Love you,” he whispers before the line clicks off.

Felicity tunes back into the current news report on the bombings, and pauses with a spoonful of ice cream inches from her mouth. Disease symptoms in relation to the bombings? It’s definitely the weirdest thing she’s heard yet.

The whole city is on the edge of collapse, the brink of destruction. All it would take is the tip of a hat to set the city aflame from within. Terror is omnipresent. Everything has effectively shut down...except for the Applied Sciences division of QC.

Ray swears his nanobots can help with the search and rescue, could help save lives in the hospital. Motivated by sheer compassion, he’s been working nonstop with the team. Or he had been until Felicity had called his fiancé to drag him home for some sleep. The entire team had thanked her for that one.

She sighs. She should probably get some sleep herself before it’s time to get back to work.

Her eyes have just fluttered shut, succumbing to sweet, blessed sleep when she’s woken by the ringing of her phone. Without opening her eyes, she flounders around for the phone and barely manages to grab it before she knocks it off the small wooden night table.

“Go to sleep, Ray,” she says into the phone, her voice scratchy and lethargic with sleep.

“Miss Felicity Smoak?” A prim female voice asks, a voice which most definitely _does not_ belong to Ray Palmer.

Her eyes fly open as she jerks upright in surprise. “Who is this?”

“Miss Smoak, my name is Amanda Waller, and the United States Government needs your help.”

~~~~~~~~~~

_“Another explosion has occurred. This time in central Hong Kong. Although no official statements have been released by the Chinese government, the explosion appears startlingly similar to the one in Starling two days ago._

_Smaller explosions have been reported  in major cities across the world, and still no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks._

~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m fine, Oliver,” Robert assures him as Katy dabs at the bloody cut over his eye.

Both of them had returned covered in ash and blood, though most of the blood didn’t belong to them. It wasn’t a reassuring sight after he had seen the explosion from his window. The only thing that had stopped him from rushing after his father had been the hotel security ushering clients back to their rooms for their own safety.

“It was just a little shrapnel. We can still head home as planned.”

Oliver’s not arguing with that part. He would have left yesterday if he could have. Nothing would make him feel better than to get back home to Felicity, Thea, and his mother. His father’s injuries mean surprisingly little to him. He is, however, worried about Katy. The poor girl is still shaking in her seat at the end of the couch, a blanket clutched to her chest.

He pushes himself to his feet. “I’ll finish packing.”

~~~~~~~~~~

_“Since Hong Kong, almost every major city has been hit by some type of bomb. With no clue as to the responsible party, officials are at a loss for any kind of motive . They continue to remind citizens to be vigilant in public areas and to report any suspicious activity_ immediately.

_Increased illnesses have been reported in Starling. Again, all persons feeling ill are urged to report to the nearest medical center. Although the threat has not been classified as biological warfare, there may have been particles released into the air that could prove harmful if ingested. If you have any concerns at all, please contact the CDC.”_

~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is biological warfare.”

Felicity crosses her arms at the ornery woman standing in front of the room of geniuses. About half of the QC Applied Sciences division is present, along with some other techs she’s never met. The woman’s strict face and tight bun are imposing and Felicity wishes she’d changed into something other than jeans and a sweater.

“So what do you want from us?” A brunette - Felicity thinks he’s called Cisco - asks as he chews on a Twizzler.

“You’re here because you each have a unique talent which should prove invaluable in finding a cure to this.” Amanda Waller holds up a small vial of red liquid. She places the tube in a stand before her and continues speaking:

“We’ve had at least fifteen confirmed cases of infection and the number grows exponentially by the hour. We’ve yet to figure out how exactly the virus spreads, but we’ve identified Patient Zero as a lawyer from Starling called Laurel Lance.”

Felicity freezes in recognition of the name: Oliver’s ex-girlfriend and his best friend’s fiance. It’s hard not to recognize someone with such a complicated history with her boyfriend. Her heart goes out to Laurel’s undoubtedly-grieving family, but the group of scientists around her have already moved on.

“And what exactly are the symptoms?” the brunette by Cisco asks. Felicity vaguely tries to connect a name to the face, not particularly impressed with the governmental run-around. Her name might be Kate or Caitlyn or something.

Waller glances at the CDC doctor by the door who answers for her. “Significantly lowered pulse, bloodshot eyes, lethargy, and a strange craving.”

“Craving?” Ray repeats, like he can’t resist the urge to ask.

The CDC official shifts uneasily and looks back at Waller who merely purses her lips before answering: “Human flesh.”

“Zombies?” Caitlyn asks incredulously. “Seriously?”

“Cool!” Cisco earns an elbow to the side from the girl for his exclamation and more than a couple of glares from the rest of the room. “I mean, not cool. Very not cool.”

“So you want us to find a cure for zombie-ism?” Felicity asks, bewildered. She’s pretty decent with chemistry but she knows nothing about biology - she can’t even think about the insides of anything without gagging a little. “No offense, but if it’s a virus like you claim, why do you need a computer expert?”

She shifts anxiously under the sudden scrutiny of the eyes on her.

“Because, Miss Smoak, we believe the nanites you and Mr. Palmer are  working on could prove highly beneficial. What we’re looking at here is an epidemic that the world is nowhere near prepared for. Everyone needs to step up.” Waller’s smile is feral as she surveys the room. “You’ll be working here, under quarantine, perfectly safe from the virus as you work on a cure.”

Felicity’s not buying it. She’s met Waller before and she knows the woman never does anything without an ulterior motive.

Waller turns away from the group, only to pause in the doorway for dramatic effect: “Congratulations! You might be the world’s only hope.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

_“As the world lives in fear of further attacks, some in Starling are whispering of a deadlier threat. The Center for Disease Control has started quarantine centers that are growing swiftly but they’ve yet to release any information about what they’re worried about. Some sources are whispering about biological wa-_

_What was that?!”_

_“Charlie? Charlie!? I’m sorry, we appear to have lost the feed from our outside correspondent. We’ll keep you informed of any new developments.”_

~~~~~~~~~~

“Dad, are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Oliver asks from across the helicopter as they make their way to the nearest airport.

“I’m fine,” Robert growls with a glare for his son.

Which is what he gets apparently for caring about his father’s well-being. It’s enough to drive a son away from his family. As sad as it is to admit, the main reason he sticks around now is for Thea. If she wasn’t caught in the middle, he’d have left his family behind long ago.

Oliver looks out the window at the city sprawled below, the dark smoke billowing from the bomb off to their right. He wonders how much worse Starling is. The news reports aren’t doing anything to assuage his fears and he’s kept up a near-constant string of texts with his little sister just to ensure she’s safe.

Her complaints about their mother’s overbearing attitude convince him that she’s just fine.

It’s Felicity’s radio-silence and the confirmation that she’s not home, which has him worrying all over again.

Oliver glances back at his father only to see Robert’s face twist in pain again. Katy reaches out to comfort his father, and Oliver’s hands clench into fists as he tears his eyes away. He wants to punch something.

It was a tactic one of his former bodyguards had taught him: take your aggression out on inanimate objects so you don’t bring it home and take it out on the people you love. Unfortunately the tactic wasn’t very helpful when he was stuck in a flying metal box.

Through pure will, Oliver ignores the couple huddled together, going so far as to disconnect the headset when he starts to hear some obscene noises .

If he had been paying attention, he would have noticed the moment sexual attraction turned into a deadly, primitive hunger that couldn’t be sated.

Oliver doesn’t like the look of the tarmac filled with grounded planes. As he turns to tell his father, he freezes at the sight that meets his eyes. It doesn’t make sense at first because all he sees is gushing red liquid, his brain too shocked to make sense of the mass of writhing bodies.

A second later, he’s relieved to be sitting farthest from the melee  as a barely human figure bathed in red blood turns it’s ire on the pilot.

Another second later, he regrets that relief as the helicopter plummets to the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~

_“Do we know anything about the situation in Starling, Dave?”_

_“No, sadly we don’t, Josephine. After the tragic death of Charlie Clarke, our newswoman on the ground, the network has declared the situation too dangerous to send reporters out. The whole city is in a state of emergency as gangs ravage an already stressed city. Believe it or not, a few eyewitnesses have called the raiders zombies. As if that’s not enough, other cities are claiming similar incidents following the explosions. There’s no official response to these allegations.”_

_“That sounds highly alarming, Dave.”_

_“You don’t have to tell me. What’s the governor’s office saying?”_

_“Besides declaring a state of emergency, there’s been no word. You have to wonder what they’re trying to hide, if this might_ actually _be a zombie attack.”_

_“Well, just in case, let’s go to Steve to hear the science side of this argument. So how about it, Steve? What’s the likelihood we’re on the cusp of an actual zombie apocalypse?”_

~~~~~~~~~~

The seatbelt is the only thing that saves Oliver’s life as the helicopter collides with the top of a building. He blinks blearily when he comes back to himself, listing sideways from the crash. He stares across the cabin of the helicopter, eyes narrowed in search of movement.

Convinced he’s the only one moving, Oliver works the buckle holding him in place until he falls out of the seat. He freezes for a moment, fully expecting the helicopter to lurch or for debris to shift .

Swallowing the bile already rising in his throat, Oliver moves across the cabin to where his father and Katy were sitting. Now he just sees a bloody mess of flesh and bone. But he needs to check, needs to confirm his father is dead, and to see what creature could have possibly done this.

He reaches the mass and his stomach sinks as he realizes there’s only one body, a feminine body that in no way belongs to Robert Queen. Suddenly, his brain starts to make sense of the situation, of the bite marks evident on Katy’s skin, of the savage violence that brought down the helicopter.

Oliver covers his mouth to fight the urge to vomit as he pushes past the body of his father’s former intern to look into the cockpit. This is something he needs to see to believe, something too fantastic to just take as fact.

A second later Oliver is forced to turn away. He stumbles for a corner and barely makes it before he empties the contents of his stomach violently. Finally, when there’s nothing left, Oliver stands and wipes his mouth, his entire body shaking.

The whole cockpit was smeared with blood and flesh. The pilot was gone, that much was abundantly clear. His father...that was a different story. His father’s body was mostly intact, but there was a pallor to his skin and blood caked around his mouth, a chunk still clenched in his teeth.

Whatever his father was now, he wasn’t human.

“GAAAHHHHH!”

Oliver spins at the groan to see the creature his father had become stare at him with icy, dead eyes. It was chewing the piece of flesh still stuck between its teeth as it eyed him.

Blindly, Oliver grasps the door handle and prays the door actually opens. He moves as the creature lunges.

He almost makes it through the door, but the creature latches onto his arm with his teeth, drawing a scream of agony from Oliver’s throat as the teeth break skin.

Oliver tries to yank his arm free. The effort is futile as the teeth just dig in harder. Blood gushes around the wound and Oliver desperately searches for something to use to defend himself.

His eyes latch onto the only thing within his grasp: the helicopter door. With a shove, he lines his father’s head up with the door. He only takes a moment for regret, a moment to quell his once again unsettled stomach, before he brings the door crashing closed on his father’s neck.

But even that isn’t enough and he’s forced to repeat the motion: once, twice, thrice...

Until, through his tears, he sees the head disengage and roll across the ground.

Oliver’s knees give out and he collapses to the ground with horrible, heaving sobs.

His father...he just killed his father...

He severed his father’s head with a helicopter door.

Motion catches the corner of his eye. Oliver turns quickly enough to make out an older Chinese man before pain spikes at the base of his skull and his world is consumed by darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2/5! I hope you like it! 
> 
> And cover art by the amazing cinnamonirony!

** **

**Part II:**

**Three Months After Infection**

~~~~~~~~~~~

_“STAY INDOORS! I REPEAT: STAY INDOORS!_

_THE THREAT IS REAL! IF YOU OR A LOVE ONE HAS BEEN HURT IN ANY INCIDENT, BRING THEM TO THE NEAREST EMERGENCY LOCATION! THIS VIRUS IS SPREAD THROUGH AN EXCHANGE OF BODILY FLUIDS! THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IS REAL! IT IS HAPPENING NOW!_

_SAVE YOURSELVES!”_

_~~~~~~~~~~_

Felicity shakes her head  at the news. All broadcasts like that do is create panic. It’s moments like this she remembers why her mother refuses to watch the news. If they weren’t in a communications blackout, Felicity would probably be fending off her mother’s frantic calls every ten minutes. At least there haven’t been any reports of a bomb in Vegas, thank god. She might not be close with her mother, but she’s got a heart.

With that thought, her eyes drift to the 5x8 picture frame on her desk. It seems like a relic of a bygone era in the craziness of the last couple months, but it reminds Felicity of a happier time. The picture was taken less than a year ago, at one of the Queen’s annual holiday parties. She’d worn red because it was Oliver’s favorite color on her and he had looked sinful in suspenders. There had been a slew of professional “family” pictures, but this one was Felicity’s favorite.

It was taken after almost everyone had left the party. Oliver had shed his jacket and Felicity her heels. They were dancing in the middle of the floor, staring at each other as if the world didn’t exist.

That was the night she told him she loved him.

Shaking her head, Felicity turns back to the schematics which had been placed on her desk half an hour ago. She was surprised when Amanda Waller had placed her in charge of the group, but the plans for a device to deliver a cure and the preliminary findings of the group are in her hands right now.

Felicity would be questioning this whole zombie-infection situation a lot more if she hadn’t seen a pasty, bloody man racing at her like she was the most delicious looking meal in the world on her way in. Luckily, she’d been pulled out of the way by a young woman she recognized as one of Waller’s.

Said woman now rested in the only other chair in Felicity’s small office. She kept checking her firearm every couple of minutes, which was starting to make Felicity more than a little uneasy.

“What exactly is the point of you being here?” Felicity asks as some part of the gun makes a clicking sound, yet again distracting her from her perusal of the schematics.

“My team is here to guard yours,” she responds pertly. Once more, the woman’s eyes dart around the room, sweeping it for threats. The woman’s restless and she wants to move, a feeling Felicity emphatically shares but that kind of makes it hard to look over designs.

She sighs. “Why don’t you patrol the building or something? No offense, but the whole gun-thing makes me uncomfortable.” She tries to gesture to get her point across. It’s mostly just flailing, yet the woman looks amused as she slides the gun back into her holster.

“I told you, Miss Smoak: I’m in charge of your safety. My team protects all of you. My job is specifically to keep eyes on you.”

Felicity narrows her eyes. “Once again, I must ask: why me?”

The woman shrugs as she casually leans back in the chair. Somehow she manages to look completely relaxed and alert at the same time.

“Does this have something to do with my father?” It’s the only answer she can come up with for the  insane amount of attention paid to an IT and cyber securities expert. Her father, with his involvement in some of the more exploratory sciences, is the only thing that could possibly connect her to this zombie virus. She’d suspect they think he’s involved, if he hadn’t been dead for nearly fifteen years.

The woman stares impassively back at her, which is really all the information Felicity needs.

“He’s the one with the doctorate in Biology and Neuroscience, not me.” She turns back to the papers in front of her; papers that probably look like gibberish to anyone outside this building and probably a good number of people in the building too.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Miss Smoak. I hear your AI theories heavily involved neural networking to the extent that you knew more about it than any of your superiors. I couldn’t make heads or tails of your thesis, but I’m told it’s impressive. But  then one day you just stopped working on the technology.”

Felicity freezes at the information, eyes locked onto the papers before her without seeing anything written there. She forces her voice to remain even. “I’m sure your boss knows all about that.”

“Which is why she chose you,” the woman answers smoothly. “I know a lot about you from your file, but I don’t know how you attracted A.R.G.U.S.’s attention. But whatever that reason was, it’s what led to you being in charge here.”

Felicity stares at the woman in a vain attempt to discern if she’s telling the truth. Unable to see any deception, she moves back to the paperwork. “What’s your name again?”

An amused chuckle escapes the woman. “You can call me Harbinger.”

She snorts. “And what are you supposed to be a harbinger of?”

“Death and destruction,” the woman answers smoothly.

Felicity looks up at the woman, startled, only to be met with amusement. Felicity tilts her head. “So what’s my codename, then? We all have one, don’t we?”

Harbinger purses her lips. She glances around before she shrugs. “You’re Athena. Cisco Ramon is Hephaestus, Snow is Demeter, Palmer – Ares, Vasquez – Apollo, York – Hera. It was supposed to be Artemis, but then she started preaching in her lab about the sanctity of marriage. But you get the idea.”

“Why the Greek gods?” Felicity asks, leaning forward.

The woman meets her eyes again with straightforward seriousness. “Because you hold the fate of the human race in your hands.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Oliver leans against the metal bars of his cage, fiddling with the tennis ball thrown to him as a joke nearly two months ago. Three months locked in a cage under observation and the tennis ball had become his friend. Well, with one notable exception.

“Good. You’re up.”

He lifts his eyes to meet those of Slade Wilson, the man behind the obnoxious tennis ball. He’d actually drawn a face on it in permanent marker and, with a harsh laugh, had told him to name it.

But that had been months ago.

“You’re still the only who hasn’t turned, Kid. It’s got people asking a lot of questions.”

Oliver huffs and bares his arm. “Well, the wound’s been healed for over a month now. I’ve put up with test after test and they still haven’t found anything. I’m not going to turn into one of those...things.” Oliver gestures to the other cells in the block, cells that contained the bitten or infected, cells he’d seen filled and emptied numerous times throughout his imprisonment. He’s the only one who hadn’t changed. And slowly, they had stopped bringing people in.

“We know,” A soft voice agrees.

Oliver’s eyes flit to the woman who comes to stand beside Slade, barely coming up to his shoulder with her slim build. She was usually dressed in a white doctor’s coat with syringes in hand, but now she looks every inch the warrior Slade does: outiftted in tight-fitting black clothes and makeshift armor. He could also count at least three weapons on her person.

He pulls himself upright. There’s something new happening now. He can’t conceal the hope in his voice as he asks: “So, you’ll let me out?”

The only time he’s been out of the cell in months were for the physical tests Shado Fei needed conducted, which amounted to Slade kicking Oliver’s butt. According to the good doctor, the tests were to gauge his aggressive reactions to confrontation. Apparently, when the infected got angry it sped up the process, whatever that meant.

Contrary to what was expected, he’d actually started to learn a thing or two about fighting from those sessions. At first, Oliver had been able to feel the condescension coming off Slade like a chill that settled into his bones. About a month in, a well-placed slugger to the face, which broke Slade’s nose, won him the man’s grudging respect.

And a tennis ball with a mutilated face.

“First, my father wants to speak with you,” Shado says, pursing her lips as she surveys him. She doesn’t agree with her father on this idea. She’s been cold to him since the start, like she didn’t see much use for him. Back in the beginning, it was because she thought he was infected, but he must have insulted her in some way since then because she never warmed up to him, not really.

It might have to do with him breaking her friend’s nose.

She swings the door to the cell open and he’s propelled down the hallway before them as they lead him through the twisting hallways to a destination unknown.

Oliver’s only met Yao Fei once, when he first woke in his cell. He was the one who had captured Oliver after the incident with Robert. He remembers waking in the cell to the Chinese man kneeling on the other side of the bars in silence.

He’d tried to talk to him, to make some sense of his new situation – tried being the operative word. No matter how he demanded answers, Yao Fei had sat in silence. It went on for hours until Oliver had nothing more to say. And then they sat in silence.

Tired and bloody, Oliver had wanted to sleep, but he refused to break eye contact, leaning against the cell wall to remain upright as he faced the man who imprisoned him. It was an outright display of what his mother fondly called his “stubborn will.” And after the hours they stayed in that position, Yao Fei nodded sharply, stood and left without a word.

It was only later Oliver learned his name from a conversation he overheard between Slade and Shado.

He hadn’t seen the man since.

And he’s certainly never heard the man speak.

At first he mistakes the paneled door in front of him for a wall. He glances back at Slade and Shado for some hint of what to do next. Shado just huff and moves past him to push the door open before she stands aside to let him pass. Slade gives him a light shove to tacitly reinforce the instruction.

Oliver stumbles into the large, open room. It’s mostly dark, lit only by a fire at one end and a few candles scattered around the room. A slight, dark figure waits before the larger fire, and Oliver approaches with caution.

The him who was first locked in the cage would immediately try to talk to this mysterious man, but Oliver remembers that first encounter all too well. So instead, Oliver drops to his knees and settles down to wait.

It’s not like he has anywhere else to go.  His father’s dead and he has no way home.

Silence drags on, broken what feels like hours later when Slade shifts uncomfortably behind him. Oliver doesn’t turn, but it sounds like Shado smacks him for disrupting the silence. The broken stillness sets Oliver’s limbs aflame with the desire to move, but he focuses himself and goes back to breathing deeply.

As his heartbeat slows and Oliver focuses, Yao Fei finally moves.

Oliver opens his mouth to speak, but the words in his throat are silenced by the peculiar sight in front of him. Yao Fei stands places a large bowl in front of him and a pitcher of water on top of a low table. He fills the bowl to the brim and takes Oliver’s hand.

Wordlessly, Yao Fei straightens Oliver’s hand and slaps it against the surface of the water. He makes eye contact with Oliver and repeats the motion.

Oliver gets the idea and repeats the motion, confused as to the purpose, but the old man nods with a smile so he guess it’s what he’s supposed to do. Water splatters from the bowl onto his clothes, the floor, and Yao Fei. The old man seems pleased.

Oliver repeats the motion under his supervision until he’s hitting the wooden sides of the bowl. When he returns his attention to the old man, Oliver finds him holding out the jug of water. Yao doesn’t speak, just pushes the jug closer.

He reluctantly takes the water jug. The cool clay jug nearly slips through his hands once he receives it’s full weight, but he manages to grasp it just in time. At a loss for what to do, he stares at the elderly man who just stares back.

His aged eyes dart to the bowl and back to Oliver. It takes him a moment, but he gets the hint and slowly fills the bowl with water. Under the continued watchful eye of Yao Fei, Oliver continues to slap the bowl of water. Even when Yao Fei leaves, Oliver continues, afraid to stop even as he switches hands. His muscles hurt even more than he thought they would from just hitting water.

“You can stop now.”

Oliver lifts drooping eyes to Shado, who looks torn between admiration and annoyance.

“What?” he blinks at her. He’s been at this so long he doesn’t even know what time it is, only that the sun is now setting.

“I think my father’s actually impressed.” Her eyes bore into him, gaze stiff and unwavering.

“Impressed? I’ve been hitting a bowl of water all day.” Saying that out loud, Oliver realizes how ridiculous this situation is. What has he been doing? _Why_ was he doing this? “Why have I been slapping water?”

Shado smirks and turns away without an answer. Shs stops in the doorway to throw a look over her shoulder. Her eyes size him up and Oliver wonders not for the first time what he’s in the middle of, what he’s getting involved in. An instant later, she turns away, asking over her shoulder:

“So are you going to eat with us or not?”

He’s never moved toward the promise of food faster.

Hitting water apparently makes you hungry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Six Months after Infection**

“The news outlets have collapsed,” Felicity notes, eyes on the static-filled television.

They’re stalled in the search for the cure. It’s been almost six months, half a year of nothing as the world collapsed around them. They were safe in their little quarantined bubble, but Starling...Starling was in serious trouble.

Waller hadn’t said anything, but Felicity knew they were running out of time. Waller’s been checking in constantly, and Felicity’s sure she’s looking for something more. She just doesn’t have a clue what it is.

Harbinger looks up from a book on mechanical engineering. It was one of the few books lying around and she’d been driven to the brink of boredom enough to start reading it. “Well, it was bound to happen at some point.”

“We can’t hold out indefinitely.” It’s the first time she’s voiced the concern aloud. She knows her team is getting antsy about the lack of results. “Every day things on the street get worse. If we don’t have a breakthrough soon...”

“If you don’t hit a breakthrough soon, we’ve got plans to extract you to a secondary facility,” Harbinger responded, attention back on the book in her hands, as if the conversation is one they’ve had a thousand times over, as if this doesn’t leave Felicity with a new weight on her shoulders.

“Leave Starling?” It feels wrong to even ask the question. Felicity knows this place. It’s home. The people she considers family are here. It’s not something she can just leave.

Harbinger closes the book with a sigh, thumb holding her spot in the middle. She levels Felicity with an even gaze. “The situation here is becoming too dire. The human population of the city is dropping at an ever-increasing rate. If you can’t figure out a cure or a vaccination, we’re going to have to take you somewhere safer. Waller’s orders.”

“I’m not going to abandon my city.” Her only home, the place where all her memories resided, all her loved ones were. If Oliver was alive and able, he would find his way here, to her and Starling. She couldn’t leave.

“Then you better get to work,” Harbinger says before returning to the book once more.

Felicity’s hands curl into fists. She like Harbinger, knows that she’s just doing her job, yet she can’t reconcile that fact. She’s out of league as a director of this operation even if she seems capable of keeping her people in line.

Still.

They need to get to work on this. She’ll never turn her back on this city, which means it’s up to her to save it.

~~~~~~~~~~

_Thwack_.

The last arrow in Oliver’s quiver finds its home in the center of the dummy’s head as he reaches the end of the course. He shifts the bow in his hand as he circles around one last time looking for any sudden, last-minute threats. Just because the assigned course is finished doesn’t mean Slade or Shado might not pop out with a surprise attack.

He learned that the hard way his first time through the course.  

Slade had been a little too happy to deliver that punch.

It was also the day, Oliver started splitting his time between training with the old man and Slade. There wasn’t a day that he didn’t fall asleep as soon as head hit the pillow between the two training sessions. Not to mention the outings. There weren’t many survivors in the crowded city of Hong Kong – anyone with good sense was long gone – but Yao Fei, Shado, and Slade have a little group they watch out for, a group Oliver’s now helping look out for. Or he would be as soon as he passed whatever test they had in store for him.

It feels good, productive, to be doing something. Yet all he wants is to get home, to get back to Starling City to check on his mother and sister, to hold Felicity in his arms again. He refuses to believe what everyone’s saying, that it’s impossible to get across the ocean, to get back to Starling. There has to be a way. He will _make_ it happen, by whatever means necessary.

“Good job, kid.”

Oliver turns to Slade, adjusting his grip on the bow to use as melee weapon when he sees the escrima sticks in the warrior’s hand.

“Your best time to date. Now let’s see if you can finally get past me,” Slade challenges with a swing of his baton.  

They both know he hasn’t been at this long enough to beat Slade technique-wise, but he’s also learned a lot from Yao Fei and Shado. He can hold his own against Slade...and any other opponents. Then again, his other opponents are zombies: not much of a competition.

Fighting Slade is like jumping into the middle of the ocean, dark and terrifying. It doesn’t give you time to think because as soon as you do, you’re dead. Oliver simply moves by instinct, ducking and blocking in a way you can only learn from months of ceaseless training.

His muscles haven’t really stopped hurting since his training started, but now it’s just a dull ache instead of debilitating pain. He’s learned something new, something he can use to protect his family when he finally makes it home.

A swear escapes him as he ducks under Slade’s baton. Then suddenly Shado is there too, attacking and it’s all Oliver can do to keep up with the blows coming at him from two sides. He weaves and blocks, but he can’t land a hit on his own. It’s takes all his training just to avoid every blow and keep up with the two experienced fighters.

He doesn’t know how long it lasts, how long he holds his own against them, before they back him into a corner and his mind enters a peaceful fighting rage. He moves without thinking, without holding back because that’s the only end he can see.

Oliver almost wins too.

He lands a punch on Shado, sending her reeling back from the hit to the solar plexis. And he grazes Slade. Elation and disbelief distract him and the next instant, Oliver finds himself staring up at the sky, breathing hard and aching in new places.

Slade laughs and holds out a hand to help him up. “You’ve improved, kid.”

Oliver scowls. He still needs to get better.

~~~~~~~~~~~

**Nine Months After Infection**

“I need a human test subject.”

Felicity stopped halfway out of Ray Palmer’s lab, turning slowly back to face the man who just managed to sound more like a mad scientist than he ever had previously, which is really saying something. The man’s black hair is sticking out in all direction and his eyes have that manic look that comes with too little sleep.

“You have the blood samples.” She points to them calmly, knowing this is a constant issue in the labs. “There are a few more of the zombies in the cells,” provided by Waller under circumstances that Felicity really didn’t want to discuss.

As far as the morality question went, they weren’t even sure the zombies were human. Did zombies have human rights? Was it even possible to cure them? It’s not like there were routes to discuss the implication of a violation of rights, but Felicity knew that some of the scientists under her control weren’t using the zombies for those moral reasons. They observed as much as possible, but testing possible cures? That was a huge violation they didn’t even contemplate until successful lab tests with the blood samples...

Not that they’d had many of those.

There had been one, and Caitlyn had moved on to rats, but that was when they discovered that rats didn’t turn into zombies. Exposure to the virus killed the rats, cutting down their test subjects and leaving them with a surplus of lab rats. And they’d yet to find a way to make the rats immune to the virus.

Granted, this work usually takes years and years of tests. They just don’t have that much time.

“I’m not using the zombies. I need a human subject to test this strategy.” He runs around in frenzied excitement. “I’ve finally got the nanites programed. This is it! They can fight the virus at the cellular level and with a little boost they might be able to reverse the changes.”

He races to the computer, pulling up diagram after diagram as he talks a mile a minute. “It takes the original composition of the cells and restores their integrity. And on the cellular level it works. I just need to see how it reacts in a human host. The rats just aren’t similar enough DNA wise to check. All it takes is one volunteer-“

“NO.” Felicity isn’t negotiating on this point. “Ray, we don’t know how your nanites will act within a human host. They’re little machines and we’re not just going to inject them into a human and then expose that person to the virus. We don’t know if the human body will even react to the nanites. You’re not doing this.”

“Felicity,” he appeals, chasing after her as she strides down the hallway. “Please! It’s not a big deal!”

“Not-,“ Felicity sputters to a stop, unable to believe the callous tone of his voice. “Ray, you could _kill_ someone with these nanites, not to mention what the virus could so _don’t_ tell me it’s not a big deal.”

“I wouldn’t just pick a random person. I would get a volunteer. This could be the key to saving the human race!”

“Where would you get a human volunteer, Ray? We’re under quarantine, and Waller isn’t going to let you break it for this. _This_ crosses the line of morality.”

“What don’t you understand about _saving the human race_?” Ray demands. “Sacrifices have to be made-“

“If you finish that ‘for the greater good’ so help me, Ray, I will slap you.” Felicity takes a deep breath, inhaling slowly through her nose. Once she has her thoughts in order, she reopens her eyes. “The world might be falling apart around us, but I won’t condone human experimentation.”

Ray scowls and storms back towards his lab, pausing only to throw another cold look over his shoulder at his doorway.  

“Get some sleep, Ray,” she says gently. He’s been too worked up. They’ve all been. But there aren’t exactly days off in a zombie apocalypse. And when finding a cure is so important, it’s not like they can rationalize one either.

After nine months, though, it’s hard to keep morale up.

Felicity follows the strains of Toxic down the hall to Cisco’s lab, probably the only person still enthusiastic after such a length of time. It’s actually kind of nice to have someone that excited, except for the weird fact that he named all the lab rats and talked to them when he needed someone to bounce some ideas off of.

She gave up on knocking on his door months ago. Now she just walks in, slowly so she doesn’t get hit with any unknown gadget – because, yes, that is a hazard. But for all his craziness,, Cisco has actually been the most successful. If he was one of the biologists, they might be closer to finding a cure.

His lab is full of machines, devices that could save the world a thousand times over, if there wasn’t a zombie apocalypse. There are freeze guns, a laser light that apparently affects mood, a containment field, and a bunch more. Waller was already using them in the field apparently.

Right now, he’s working on distribution systems for whatever form the cure will take. He’s a little stunted by the lack of a cure, or knowledge of what form it will take, but that hasn’t slowed Cisco down in the slightest.

“Cisco?” Felicity sneaks through the doors.

“Here! Over here! I’m here!” He shouts from the depths of the room, followed quickly by a large crash and, “My bad!”

All Felicity sees is a wall of wires, tools, and circuit boards. “How’s it going, Cisco?”

“Good!” His voice shouts back. “Almost done with the Precipitator!”

She rolls her eyes at the corny name, but then, Cisco names everything. “Alright! I’ll leave you to it. Let me know if you need any more help with the programming!”

“Yup! Got it!” Cisco shouts from the depths of the room.

Felicity shakes her head as she backs out of the room and continues her rounds. Caitlyn and Jay are trying to work through a possible breakthrough that keeps falling just short of success.

They barely spare her a glance and Felicity heads back to her office feeling like she has every day for the past week. Harbinger’s threat of leaving Starling has hung over her head all week. She’s pretended through sheer willpower that they’re not going to be leaving in a couple days. The boxes that seemingly keep appearing out of nowhere are making that denial pretty hard to maintain.

She swears Harbinger keeps setting up the boxes and starting to pack them just to get her more comfortable with the idea. If anything, it’s bringing out that inherent stubbornness she inherited from her mother. She’s more convinced than ever that she can’t abandon the city, the people who matter to her.

“The best thing you can do to help the city is find a cure.”

Felicity’s eyes flit to the woman in question. “Except I’m mostly useless. I’m not doing anything here that no one else could be doing. It feels like you’re just keeping an eye on me, like that’s the only reason I’m here.”

“I told you why you’re here,” she responds tiredly, but there’s still something wary about her disposition.

“And I no longer believe you. I wanted to, but it really doesn’t make sense, does it? Putting a computer genius in charge of a medical team? That’s nowhere near a smart choice. I’m here so you can keep an eye on me. Waller decided that was important, but I’ve got news for you to bring to your boss: you can pack up and leave Starling but I’m not going with you.”

Harbinger’s lips purse, twist into a scowl, but there’s also approval in her eyes. “You’re here for a reason-“

“That reason have anything to do with Project Mastermind?” She’d stumbled on the files about a week ago and had been struggling with how to confront Harbinger on the subject.

The confusion  that mars her face instantly clears her name as far as Felicity is concerned. “Project Mastermind?” she parrots.

“Waller’s gambit to control the zombies,” Felicity spits out as she angrily shoves papers around her desk. “She doesn’t want to cure them, she wants to control them. That’s what this is all about: control! And I can’t believe I got sucked into her web. This is exactly what she wants and she wants me to program the neural pathways her commands must follow.

“She thought she was so clever hiding it in Ray’s nanites programming, but it’s lunacy! I won’t help her do that! What reason could she possibly have for wanting an army of zombies? It’s nothing good and i will not have anything to do with it!”

Felicity jumps as a blaring alarm and flashing red lights fill the building. Harbinger pales, turning to the door.

“We need to evacuate! Now!” She shouts, racing to the door.

But Felicity’s on her heels, facing after her in search of the breach. The whole building is shutting down, locking down sections to increase the level of quarantine. It’s gut instinct that sends Felicity stumbling down the hall Ray’s room. He’s desperate enough to actually use some of the virus outside of containment. His fiancé was one of the few originally infected, back when they didn’t know what was happening to the victims.

He’s invested in stopping the virus, in finding a cure, if it was ever possible. And he would take the most risky option. She should have seen it earlier.

If she wouldn’t let him experiment on people, he would experiment on himself.

So she’s not surprised when she comes face to face with a diseased Ray Palmer. His eyes are bloodshot and in between moans and groans she hears mutters of nanites, but they’re not doing anything.

Harbinger has her gun out and aimed already, locked on Ray where he stands. She holds her stance, waiting as Ray fights the infection, as his body protests the change. Felicity slows to a walk until she comes to stand beside Harbinger.

“Ray...” she says softly.

His eyes dart up to hers, scant humanity left in the brown irises but what’s left is a plea to let him do this. He starts seizing, whatever he took as an experiment devastating his body. Yet he remains standing, shaking in place until it stops.

Ray doesn’t move for a moment, frozen as the tension builds.

Harbinger adjusts her grip on the gun, but doesn’t fire, not immediately. If this insane cure works, they have to know.

And if it doesn’t a spray of blood could be fatal.

Ray’s head lifts, one eye zombie red and the other the same warm brown.

Felicity gasps. This is it! Thier possible cure! Something worked!

_BANG. BANG. BANG._

Three shots to the head later, Ray’s dead on the floor before her, and Harbinger’s saying exactly what they both know:

“Whether you’re coming with us or not, it’s time to leave Starling.”

~~~~~~~~~~~


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! 
> 
> I'm disregarding my posting schedule for now because I'm going to be MIA from the internet for most of tomorrow due to a demanding work schedule. So enjoy the next section of my zombie apocalypse AU! 
> 
> (although I'm not going to post it to Tumblr until tomorrow since I can actually schedule posts). 
> 
> Enjoy!

** **

**Part III:**

**A Year After Infection**

_Crash_.

Felicity startles and spins towards the alley she heard the noise come from. In the bright sunshine, Starling looks like a ghost town. Doors hang off hinges, hunks of rubble lies scattered, broken glass breaks under foot.

In short: it looks like it has for the past three months Felicity’s been outside the quarantined building that used to be the QC Applied Sciences. It’s mostly safe to be out during the day. While the zombies in the lab seemed to have some aversion to extremely bright lights, it hadn’t deterred them in the least. Out in the real world, she’s found she can go long periods of time without seeing a single Infected.

There are nests scattered throughout the city, as though the creatures still crave a bit of companionship even in their altered state. There are, surprisingly, at least ten major nests in Starling, or ten that have been mapped out anyway.

Felicity’s sure they outnumber the humans in Starling, not that she’s seen many of them. She’s seen more zombies than people, but she knows they exist. She sees evidence of it in the deliberate rearranging of piles of rubble: zombies aren’t capable of that.

She hears a can skitter across the alley behind her and Felicity darts around a corner for cover, lifting the crossbow at her side to aim at whatever might be following her.

Maybe she’s paranoid, but the truth is that she’s a pretty decent shot with the weapon. And as Roy says, it’s far more useful than a gun. At least with the crossbow she has reusable ammunition.

Felicity doesn’t see anyone down the street, but her heart is still racing, so she refuses to just let it go. Her gut tells her there’s someone out there.

“Who goes there?” Felicity shouts, confident that if she is alerting a zombie to her presence, she’ll be able to get away. If not, it’s another human to add to her odd little group, which, honestly, Roy probably won’t be happy about, but the humans have got to stick together.

“Really? That’s what you ask?” an amused, male voice calls back. “’Who’s there?’ Are you a knight in a castle or something?”

Felicity’s nose scrunches as she withholds a snort. She recognizes that voice, even if the last time she heard it, it was through a phone. Trust her to run into Tommy Merlyn, joker extraordinaire, in the middle of an apocalypse.

“You left your flank open.”

Felicity shrieks as a second voice come from behind her. She whips her crossbow around with the intention of aiming it at the person who had the audacity to sneak up on her. It would have worked too, except the person she’s up against is over a foot taller and built like a tank.

“Wow. You’re,” she gestures at him with a wave of her hand, “huge. And scary looking.”

The man chuckles. “Do you mind pointing that away from me?”

Felicity looks down at the weapon and lowers it. “Right. So I guess Merlyn’s with you? That is Tommy Merlyn, right?”

“You can come out now, Merlyn,” he calls around the corner. “It looks like you’ve got a fan.” Then he holds out his hand to Felicity. “John Diggle. You can call me Digg.”

Felicity sizes him up again before she shakes his hand. “Felicity. Smoak. And it’s just Felicity.”

“And this is Tommy Merlyn,” John introduces as a tall, dark-haired man rounds the corner, “But you already knew that.”

“Hi!” Felicity grimaces at her over-bright tone.  Introductions seem awkward in this post-apocalyptic world. Like ‘hello, I know we’re living in a desolate landscape, but let’s stop to chat’. It’s weird. “We haven’t met before but-”

“You’re the elusive Felicity Smoak, my best friend’s...girlfriend,” Tommy announces with a grin and Felicity blinks at him. There was a pause before girlfriend that she wants to question, but she’s not about to let her mind venture to that dangerous place of what might have been.

Unintentionally, her hand reaches up to play with her earring. There might not be much use for jewelry in their world anymore, especially not the kind that costs hundreds of dollars, but it was the last gift Oliver gave her.

“Queen?” Digg asks, eyebrow raised. “I thought he was overseas when it happened.

“He was,” Felicity offers with a sad smile. She doesn’t know what happened to him and has no way of finding out unless she crosses the freaking ocean. The love of her life might be alive, but there’s no way to get to him. The best she can do is protect his remaining family in case they ever get to see each other again.

“Thea’s alive?” Tommy blurts out.

Felicity winces. “Did I say that out loud?”

The two men nod grimly.

They can’t do this here, Felicity decides as she casts a look around. “We can’t talk here. Come on.”

Digg and Tommy seem content to follow her. Then again, either of them could probably take her out with minimal effort, so it probably wasn’t much of a risk on their part.

“So, Felicity, don’t take this the wrong way, but you here all alone?” Tommy asks.

If they weren’t covered in dirt and grime and vulnerable for attack, Felicity would joke back more, would let her guard down. As it is, she raises an eyebrow. “What? You’re wondering if my reinforcements are going to take you out any second now.”

“No. More curious about how a girl like you survived a year in this hellscape without running into us.” Tommy states with a good-natured smile even as his head swivels to check out their surroundings.

“Hey! I may not look like it, but I’m a fighting master.” Felicity tries to look tough, but based on the laughter no one’s fooled. Their laughter sounds rusty, even to their own ears, but Felicity thinks it’s a beautiful sound they need more of in this nightmare of a world.

So of course she does the only logical thing and leads them back with her. Roy will tell her she’s collecting strays again, but he’ll give in just as quickly. After all, the kid talks a big game, but he’s just a marshmallow on the inside.

Digg and Tommy stop short when she slides into a sleek blue car. It’s tiny, which will make it especially interesting to see the hulking men get in. She starts the car up with a twist of the key, triggering even more surprise.

“How?” Tommy asks, sliding into the passenger seat.

“The car’s electric. I jerry-rigged it with a solar panel for a longer battery.” She grins at him and then in the mirror at the cramped-looking John Diggle.

“ _Longer_ battery?” Digg questions.

Felicity grins. “Queen Mansion has solar power and a generator. It’s not much, but it’s something.”

“Thea? Moira?” Tommy asks as the vehicle starts to move.

“Thea’s alive. She’s looking after a couple of our new house guests.” She doesn’t address the question about Moira. That’s a difficult one to talk about, still fresh.

Three months ago, when Felicity had made her way painstakingly to Queen Mansion, she had been greeted  by the sharp edge of a sword, wielded by a dark-haired man dressed all in black. She has no doubt Malcolm Merlyn would have beheaded her if Thea hadn’t called out her name in recognition. The man was a cold-blooded killer, one that was helpful for a time when it came to surviving a zombie apocalypse, but when Moira got infected....

She still has the scar on her upper arm from his sword. Malcolm had blamed her, raging fire in his eyes as he went after her until Thea screamed at him to leave them alone. Miraculously, he had listened to his daughter (which was another revelation she didn’t want to dwell on). Felicity had stayed locked in her room for two weeks until it was clear she hadn’t been infected.

And Moira was still out there somewhere, a zombie.

Felicity shakes her head, forcing her thoughts away from the dark ones. “So...how many are you? I mean, it’s not just the two of you, right?”

Tommy glances sideways at Digg. He shrugs before answering. “We’ve got a couple others with us. You?”

She smirks at his challenge. “Maybe one or two. Wanna meet them?”

~~~~~~~~~~~

**Eighteen Months After Infection**

“There’s a ship at the docks.”

Slade snorts, not bothering to look up from the sword he’s currently sharpening. “So?”

“So, a boat means people, real people, not zombies.”  Oliver clenches and unclenches his hands, curling them into fists. His body hums with the urge to _move_ , to _do something_. This is it: his first chance to go home in over a year. That boat could be from anywhere, it could _go_ anywhere. Like it always does in times of stress, Oliver’s hand clenches around the engagement ring still burning a hole in pocket.

Slade finally looks up to shoot him an irritated glare.

“It’s a way for me to go home, for you to go home if you want to.” He can’t lose hope. His family - _Felicity_ \- might be waiting there for him. This might be his last chance to get home, his only chance. And he knows Slade misses Australia, even if the stoic soldier refuses to admit it.

“You’re dreaming, kid.” He goes back to his blade with steadfast concentration.

But this isn’t something Oliver can let go. He needs to see that ship, find out where it came from, who’s there, if it’s a viable way for him to go home. All he’s heard is that it’s impossible to cross the ocean. They haven’t seen any planes or boats in almost a year. They’re not even sure there are other survivors out there.

Oliver just can’t afford to think like that.

Their little colony of about seventy-five has started to stabilize. It’s no longer Shado and Slade protecting the group. Everyone has a role: protector, guard, gardener, cook, medic, etc. His role here isn’t so integral anymore and he can finally entertain the idea of leaving.

“Come on, boys! Time to go,” Shado announces as she bursts into the room, snatching a bow and quiver from the armory wall. She looks at Oliver and Slade expectantly.

“Where are we going?” Oliver asks warily.

Since the training of the new recruits, the three of them haven’t been out together. Oliver was trained enough to be better than average, even if he still wasn’t quite on Slade’s level. Now he was usually in charge of one of the smaller back-up groups. It was unusual to for them to be deployed like this.

“New boat in the harbor. Figured we could bring the team together for this one. Things have been pretty quiet, so they can spare all three of us.”

Oliver pretends not to notice how Slade is now more than happy to go explore the new ship now that Shado’s suggested it. It’s not like he’s surprised. The two of them have been circling each other for as long as he’s known them. At first he assumed they were together, but after he was released from his cage, he learned they’re just fighting partners.

Oliver didn’t believe it. He assumed they were keeping it on the down low, but then Shado had come onto him after a particularly hard battle. He’d been tempted.He’d been celibate for the last year since the apocalypse, focused on getting home to the woman who owned his heart. Sure, he was human, and there was no guarantee Felicity was even alive, but until he saw her grave, anything else felt like a betrayal.

It turns out Oliver Queen – consummate playboy and womanizer – was more likely to work out his stress and frustration in other ways. Of course with Shado, knowing he was just a quick release without putting her heart on the line with Slade, Oliver wasn’t about to step in the crossfire of that blooming relationship, even if she had offered it. He called that personal growth.

The walk through the mostly desolate city is boring. They’ve taken out as many of the zombies as possible since they started their little colony, but Oliver also knows Yao Fei has been talking about moving them for the sake of their long-term survival.

They need land to provide food, and raise animals. They need space to grow. Oliver can already see the plans coming together, but he knows he won’t be going with them. He can’t. It’s moving in the wrong direction. This boat...it’s his first chance, the only one in a year and a half. He has to figure out how to take this boat home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re getting better with that thing.”

Felicity glances over her shoulder, squinting against the sunlight to get a look at Tommy. She grins and turns back to the target down the field. “Well, I figured since you found it, I might as well use it.”

She draws the string and releases the arrow again. They’d found a stock of compound bows at a sporting goods store a couple months back, and John had insisted they learn another weapon with reusable ammo. Plus, the bow was faster to reload and Felicity was no good at hand to hand combat, especially when it came to zombies.

Felicity’s not good enough with her aim yet, but at least she hits the target nine times out of ten. Without the vast resources of the internet, Felicity finds herself with lots of time on her hands to practice. Plus, she’s better than everyone else with the bow so they can’t make fun of her like they do when she’s practicing hand-to-hand with John Diggle.

“I never found archery that appealing, but with you, it’s actually hot.” He slides up behind Felicity and gets in her personal space, crowding her as he flirts. It’s Tommy’s go-to tactic to lighten the mood, even though they both know he’s not serious.

Felicity considered sleeping with him once. Almost did too after a couple drinks of homemade moonshine. Instead she’d ended up in Oliver’s room crying into one of his old dress shirts.

Shaking the memory aside, Felicity grins into the bow string she’s pulled back to her cheek. “You’re distracting me.”

He sighs and pulls back. “Spoil sport.”

The arrow she releases flies into the center of the target with a satisfying thud as she turns back to the former playboy. “How’d the scouting go?”

“We found a group of four over on Benjamin. Thea’s getting them settled now. John’s taking stock of the armory.” Tommy runs a hand through his hair and Felicity notices the bruises on his arms for the first time.

“You ran into trouble?”

He nods, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Everyone’s fine.  But yeah, the zombies seem to be more and more active, like they’re getting restless.” He moves forward, plucking the bow from her hands and aiming it at the target. “So, Smoaky, you think you’ll actually be able to aim this at a zombie?”

She scowls at the reminder that no matter how good she gets, Felicity can’t release the bow – or any other weapon for that matter – at anything besides the circular target down the field. She’d tried. And the result was John shooting the zombie she had been aiming at in the first place. Apparently, it was hard to hit a target when your eyes were squeezed shut.

But that’s why she’s not in the field. No matter how much she practices, she can’t knowingly kill another creature. John pulled her from the field as soon as he realized that.

Felicity had only ever excelled at science, math, and computers. She makes it her business to do her best at whatever she attempts, but killing people...she’s not sure that’s something she wants to succeed at.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Tommy assumes correctly.

Felicity rips the bow from him. “When it comes down to it, I can take the shot.” She’s sure she could, too, under the right circumstances.

Tommy frowns at her. “Felicity, your life over theirs is a good enough reason to shoot.” When she ignores him, he takes a step closer, gripping her arm to get her to turn her attention back to him. “I’m serious, Felicity. None of us would be here without you. You have a way of bringing people together. Losing you would be the death of us.”

She snorts. “You’re exaggerating, Merlyn. You’d survive without me.”

He grits his teeth, taking a deep breath. “Just because I survived my fiancé’s death, doesn’t mean this group would live on without us. You keep the group together. And one day, that role will mean you have to protect it.”

His hand drops from her arm. “And you can do it.”

“Would you be able to do it?” Felicity asks curiously. “Kill your fiancé if you saw her again?”

It’s a morbid curiosity, one she shouldn’t ask at all, but it slips out without thought.

Tommy doesn’t react except to grab the engagement ring that hangs on a chain around his neck. He remains silent for long moments, so long that she opens her mouth to change the subject, but he cuts her off.

“Laurel...she was one of the first. She started acting...odd, so we went to the hospital. She infected a good thirty people before she escaped. Once we figured out what it was, that there was no cure, her father and I went out...we agreed she wouldn’t want to live like that...” He wipes at his tears and takes a deep breath. “She bit her father when we found her. I had to shoot both of them.”

He stifles his emotions after a moment and continues with a touch of brevity in his voice: “I threw up after that, couldn’t sleep well for months, still can’t sometimes.”

“Tommy...” she places a comforting hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...I...sorry,” she finishes lamely.

He nods gruffly. “You’re just lucky you haven’t had a similar experience, Smoaky.”

Felicity watches him walk away in silence before she lifts the bow once again and aims at the target. He has a point, even if her stomach churns at the very thought. She could have just as easily been in a similar situation with Oliver. Instead she doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive. She’s not sure which is worse.

Another arrow finds its home in the target.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Hindsight is a magical thing_ , Oliver thinks, rubbing the back of his head as he comes to. He groans as he recognizes bars around him yet again. He tries to stand, to pull himself up, only to slump back in sudden pain and a pounding headache.

He blinks again, trying to take in his surroundings without moving and aggravating his head. He makes out Shado blearily in the cage to his right. And on his left, he can make out Slade with a white bandage wrapped around his head several times, covering an eye.

Seeing the other man isn’t awake, Oliver turns his attention to Shado. She holds a discrete finger up to her lips, smearing blood on her face from open cuts. They both know how dangerous that is given the zombie situation.

Oliver nods and lets his eyes wander around the rest of the room. It’s huge, and all of it looks to be filled with cages, some occupied, but most empty. He can’t say that bodes well for them.

The memories slowly come back to him as they wait for Slade to wake up.

He had gone ahead to try and talk to whoever it was that was commanding the freighter. There hadn’t been a response and after an hour of waiting for some reaction and not seeing a single thing, they had all entered the ship. They had been careful, expectant of an attack. And Oliver remembers gas suddenly seeping from a vent, herding them towards a room where seven masked men were waiting.

He groans again at the pain in his head. It appears it wasn’t just from getting knocked out, but from being drugged as well.

“I wouldn’t recommend moving too much,” a female voice suggests. “At least not until you’ve had some food.”

“Sara?” Oliver’s eyes fly open, searching for the person behind the voice.

It could be the drugs in his system playing tricks on his subconscious, making him hear things that aren’t there. The wry tone that perfectly matched the voice of Sara Lance. She’d been a close friend of Thea’s, especially when he had been dating Laurel Lance. She’d been a huge flirt, even with him, but the real subject of her affection had been a dark skinned exotic girl named Nyssa.

She’d moved to Central City for school, and Oliver hadn’t seen her in years, yet he can recognize her haggard blonde hair through the dirt and grime. He finds her in a cage across the way and he scrambles closer, ignoring her advice. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

Because that’s the only thing that filters through his mind: the boat has been to Starling. She had been in town for wedding plans, he’s sure of it. It means this ship is a way of getting home. Despite the cage he’s in, that idea gives him hope.

His hand finds the engagement ring in his pocket.

Sara smiles weakly at him. “Hey, Ollie.”

He frowns at her aversion to his questions, the way she refuses to look directly at him and instead stares at the grimy metal floor of the freighter.

So many more questions sit on the tip of his tongue, suspicions only she can verify. But she’s skittish. Her eyes dart around the large dingy room, and refuse to settle on him. Oliver scoots closer. He needs to get her attention focused back on him.

“Sara, what’s going on here?”

Her face twists in a grimace, but she still doesn’t answer, turning in her cage so that her hunched back faces him.

“Sara...”

She finally lifts sad, tormented blue eyes to his. “You shouldn’t have gotten on the ship, Ollie...now he’s got you too.”

“Who?” Oliver asks, sensing Shado move closer to Sara on his other side. He needs to keep her talking. They need all the information they could get.

“He’s crazy. He thinks this zombie plague is some sort of natural selection device and he wants to see what it takes to survive it. It’s...” she shivers like she just caught a chill. “it’s terrible. You shouldn’t have come, you shouldn’t have come.”

He exchanges a glance with Shado through the bars of the cage. This isn’t good. They need to get out of here and back to the colony. And they need to bring Slade and Sara. They’re on the same page this time.

“Sara, do you know how to get out of here?” Oliver asks her slowly.

Brokenly, she nods in response. “But it won’t help you.”

The once vibrant girl who defended her friends fiercely, who fought with her older sister more often than not, was a shell. Whatever had happened to her turned her into a shadow of who she once was, a wraith of ill portent without the will to fight back.

Oliver sighs, ignoring her in favor of turning to Slade on his other side. He’s actually surprised the man isn’t awake yet. “Slade,” he whispers as he moves across the enclosed space, mentally preparing for the worst.

“He won’t be waking up anytime soon.” Sara points at her eye, the same eye that’s covered on Slade. “He took it.” She lets out a manic laugh, shrill and dissonant. “Oops.”

If there wasn’t a sinking pit on Oliver’s stomach before, there’s certainly one there now. This is bad, very bad. Sara’s completely lost it, Slade’s eye is gone, and they’re locked in cages. This day couldn’t get much worse.

“Besides,” Sara continues. “We’ve already set sail. We only stop long enough to find supplies and pick up fresh bait.” She looks at them again. “And you walked right into the trap.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oliver meets Doctor Anthony Ivo two days later.

The man is certifiable. He talks like he created the virus to thin out the human population so he could start it anew from only the strongest specimens of the human race. It’s like he thinks Oliver, Slade, and Shado are gifts from immortal beings who agree that he’s doing the right thing as he tests their responses to stimuli and takes medical samples.

It’s eerily similar to his first months with the colony.

Except they actually treated him humanely.

Ivo has no consideration for the well-being of his “patients.” One test of so-called strength is seeing if he can stitch up his own bullet wound. Another is seeing how much electricity his body can handle before it gives out. And all the while there’s another man watching his higher brain functions for God knows what.

They cycle through the members of his team and Sara. And time passes slowly, with large chunks missing. Oliver gives up on keeping track of time by when they’re taken to Ivo, but he never loses sight of the main objective: getting free and getting home.

There are plans, plans formed in whispers from their cages, plans that expand as new prisoners are brought on board. And slowly, ever so slowly, things fall into place. Days drag into weeks, which turn into months until Oliver can’t tell how long he’s been here. So it’s both too soon and not long enough when everything finally comes to fruition. Oliver barely has time to process.

It’s during the exchange of two prisoners.

Sara faints, distracting the guards while a couple doors are still unlocked. Oliver takes out one, breaking his neck without wasting a second as Shado slits the other’s throat with a makeshift blade.

The keys are taken next and prisoners freed.

A grand total of fifteen, they outnumber the crew, at least as far as Oliver knows.

Taking over the ship goes so smoothly as to seem almost anticlimactic. The guards are easily subdued by the angry prisoners and the doctors don’t even put up a fight before they’re thrown into the cages that once held Oliver and his friends.

But that’s where the plan falls apart.

Twenty prisoners now free on a boat, and all hierarchy has vanished. Honestly, Oliver wasn’t particularly concerned because they had broken open Ivo’s safe and he now had Felicity’s ring in his hand once again.

He lets the rest of the escapees argue and debate, even threaten violence, but he stares at the simple and elegant ring. He’s closer now, closer than he’s ever been. Now he just need to convince them to point this boat toward home, toward Starling and the love of his life.

~~~~~~~~~~


	4. Part IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Part IV is up today!! Because I posted a poll on tumblr...probably because I needed a reason to post it now instead of waiting for tomorrow...Anyway: 
> 
> TADA! 
> 
> Enjoy!

** **

**Part IV:**

**Two Years After Infection**

“John, what do you see?”

Felicity worries her bottom lip as she stares at the command center she’s erected in her personal corner of their base camp. She commandeered the room and every TV, computer or other bit of technology as soon as they got the power to support a major computer system.

It was amazing how many satellites were floating around in space just waiting to be used. Felicity’s pretty sure none of the owners care that she’s commandeered a couple, but it gives her surveillance of the area. It was a game changer.

Now instead of struggling to stay a step ahead of the creatures, they were confidently in the lead. They had hunting parties – for both meat and zombies – farmers and a beautiful garden all within their encampment. And more rooms than they could have hoped for.

The boat they had spotted on the satellite feeds though, that was worrisome.

“ _It’s the Amazo,”_ Digg responds. “ _A year ago it took a bunch of survivors. We’ll keep an eye on it._ ”

Felicity nods at the screens. “Keep me informed.”

There’s a knock on the door and Felicity quickly shuts down the screens, but she leaves the ear bud in should John need to talk to her.

She peeks around the door and sighs at the sight of an annoyed brunette.

“What’s going on?” Roy demands, trying to catch a glimpse of the room behind Felicity.  “Thea just up and disappeared an hour and a half ago, so what’s happening?”

Felicity pinches the bridge of her nose. “Roy-“

“No! Don’t _Roy_ me! I want to know what’s happening! Digg, Tommy, Thea, they’re all out on some secret mission. So what is it?”

She pinches the bridge of her nose as she starts to feel a headache coming on. A quick glance around confirms they’re alone and she drags Roy into her computer room. She turns to face him. “You tell no one about this.”

He nods, unfazed by her belligerent demeanor.  

Reluctantly, Felicity keys up the satellite picture. “We spotted it late last night. It’s been drifting. John assembled a team to take a closer look.”

“And he took my girlfriend, but not me?” Roy demands, anger flaring up once again.

She barely contains her eye roll at his question. “Roy, you know it’s not a reflection of your skill level. John left you in charge of the perimeter. You relieve Jackson in fifteen.”

He doesn’t quite perk up at the news, but Roy at least glowers at her a little less. Felicity is careful not to elaborate on the implications of _that_ boat appearing in Starling’s harbor. If it _is_ the same Amazo, it’s a real, _human_ threat. She’s not about to tell Roy that. Thea can take care of herself, they both know that. It doesn’t mean Roy will stop worrying.

Still, Felicity whispers a quiet ‘be safe’ for her team surveying the ship. Well wishes never hurt, even if the world fell apart two years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Oliver smiles as the sunshine hits his face, even if he can feel the grit of months as a prisoner on his skin. Almost five months as a prisoner and one as a free man. It was a long trip, but he was finally seeing Starling City on the horizon. His hair is overgrown as well as his beard, but it doesn’t matter because he’s finally home.

Felicity is out there somewhere and he’s going to find her.

He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face if he tried.

“Looks like you got your wish.”

Oliver turns his face from the sunshine to stare at Shado next to him. She watches the landscape of a ruined city that’s laid out before their eyes.

“Do you really think you’ll find your family?” She asks casually. Then she gestures to the ring in his hand. “Her?”

He shrugs. Oliver knows it’s a long shot, but he can’t leave his city without looking. “I have to.”

He knows she understands, that if it were her father she would go to the ends of the Earth to make sure he was safe. She stands there in contemplative silence, lets it drag on as Oliver tries to come up with a way to say goodbye and thank her for everything all at once.

“We’ll come with you,” she announces to Oliver’s great surprise.

“What? No, Shado, what about your father?”

She grimaces and holds the gun she took from one of the crew members a little tighter. “I looked through the Captain’s log, Oliver.” She takes a deep breath. “After we were captured, they sent more men to the colony. Apparently, there were far more guards on the ship originally. They cut their losses and blew up the colony. There were no survivors.”

He’s going to be sick: So many innocents – lucky survivors – killed by the terrible man who liked to experiment on them.

“We have nothing to go back to,” Shado concludes. “So we stick together.”

Oliver nods stiffly. “We stick together.”

~~~~~~~~~

They find their weapons in the ship’s arsenal. Most of Oliver’s and Slade’s armor has been split among the crew and the prisoners contest property of it, so they’re left to assemble what they can before they commandeer a lifeboat.

The rest of the prisoners have their own agenda, but Sara scrambles after them desperately.

“You’ll take me with you, right?” She pleads as they climb into the boat.

To Oliver it’s not really a question. Starling’s as much her home as his. Slade scowls, his default expression, but Shado nods jerkily.

Sara lets out a relieve exhale before climbing into the boat so it can be lowered to the ocean. When they arrived she’d been as close to crazy as he’d ever seen. She was traumatized, which was hardly any wonder considering what Ivo liked to do. It had taken two weeks to convince her they were real, and days of constantly talking to her to get her to come back to some semblance of sanity.

She still had moments where she regressed into that state of insanity, but Oliver and Shado were helping. And hopefully getting off this damn boat will help her get back some modicum of normalcy.

“What do you think we’re going to find?” She whispers as Oliver starts to row them to shore, his bow resting between them on the floor of the boat. Slade and Shado sit quietly at opposite ends of the boat on high alert.

“You’d know better than me,” he responds.

She shakes her head. “Not really. I know Laurel was sick, but that’s it.”

Oliver glances at her. “What about...” His voice chokes around the names and Oliver can’t bring himself to ask the question.

“I don’t know anything else, Ollie.”

He pushes more effort into rowing. The sun is still high in the sky, but zombies are going to become an issue as soon as they get to shore. They need to find a safe spot to call home base and then get a lay of the land, all before night falls.

They’re almost to the docks when Slade speaks up:

“Do you feel that?”

“Someone’s watching us,” Shado agrees, drawing an arrow as her eyes scan the landscape.

“What do you think? Zombie or human?” Oliver asks, still calmly rowing, if a little slower now.

“Could be either,” Slade mutters. “Better stay on guard.”

Oliver nods and slowly brings them closer to the pier. “Slade. You first. Then Sara, Shado, and me last.”

No one argues the plan and they disembark quickly and efficiently. But now, they don’t have an idea of what to do. Well, there are a couple ideas...Neither very thrilling.

“The safe house! My dad set up a bunker,” Sara explains excitedly. “It’s full of food, weapons. He called right before Ivo grabbed me. My father told me that if I ever needed to find him, I could do it from there. It’s our best shot at finding survivors. It has to be secure.”

Slade scowls, but even he refrains from telling her that her father might be dead. It appears the gruff soldier has some tact after all.

Oliver on the other hand thinks the best shot he’d have is going to Queen Mansion, which is quite the hike from their current position with a whole city of zombies and unknown threats between them and their goal.

Neither of their plans is really that great. But Queen Mansion is defendable, and farther from the zombies.

In the end, they decide to split up with the agreement that if there was nothing at Quentin Lance’s safe house, they would travel to Queen Mansion. With no way to communicate, Oliver and Sara decided on an old Starling City landmark to meet at if neither location was suitable: the Downtown bridge.

There’s a moment, when it’s time to split that Oliver thinks the plan will fall apart. Slade stops walking, his constant scowl growing darker as he sees them start to diverge. Everyone turns to look at him in surprise.

“Splitting up is a bad idea,” he grunts. “We should stick together.”

Shado walks up to him and bounces onto the balls of her feet to press a kiss to his cheek under his eye patch. “We’ll be fine. Go with Oliver. We’ll see you soon.”

She and Sara disappear before Slade recovers from the brief intimate moment. Oliver fights a grin at the man’s expression, but Slade catches it and his expression sours.

“Cut it out, kid. We’ve got a mission to accomplish.” He forges ahead and Oliver finally lets the smile take over his face for a moment, reveling in his friend’s happiness, before he feels eyes on him again and he remembers the direness of his situation. It’s not the time for teasing. They’re in unfamiliar, hostile territory.

He can tease his friend later.

~~~~~~~~~~

“ _They’re splitting up_ ,” John reports over the comms. “ _We haven’t gotten close enough to get a positive ID, but Merlyn’s sure one is Sara Lance. She’s accompanied by an Asian woman, and two men. All three are outfitted like soldiers.”_

“But the boat left?” Felicity questions, chewing her bottom lip as she stares at the satellite information.

“ _Yup. Sara Lance and the Asian woman are headed towards Lance’s hideout. Tommy and Thea are following them. I’ll trail the other two._ ”

She nods. “Be careful, John.”

“You too, Felicity.”

She cuts off the line and shuts off the computer screens. She twists in her chair, knowing that outside her door the refuge was bustling, pretending to ignore the undercurrent of anxiety over the missing scout team. She can’t deal with the tension anymore, so she picks up the bow by the door, the weapon she’s still failed to use on anything vaguely humanoid, and heads out to the field to practice. She might as well get some of that done as she waits for further reports from her team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We’re still being followed,” Slade mutters as they try to start yet another car.

Oliver gets the engine to catch with a grin. After six failed attempts he’s happy to see one finally work. “Not for long.”

Slade laughs as he slides into the passenger seat. “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

It’s trickier to navigate the city with rubble and abandoned cars and everywhere, but once Oliver makes it to a main road, he’s surprised by the cleanliness around him. There are no bodies around, and the cars have been pushed to the side so the road is mostly clear as they head out of the city.

He exchanges a look with Slade. There are definitely humans around here keeping things clean. They just have to find them.

The farther they get from the city, the more overgrown everything looks, but the road looks recently travelled and Oliver frowns, pulling the car to the side of the road and parking it.

“We should walk from here.” They’re only a couple miles out and the signs of life are still there. They need a better look at what they’re walking into. Slade silently agrees with a nod.

Oliver draws his bow as they start to creep through the forest, still following the private road that leads to Queen mansion. Slade pulls out his blade, swinging at the underbrush to make their walk easier.

It works well, too, until the blade cuts through a thin wire and they freeze.

Nothing happens immediately, so it’s not a booby trap which is good but it still means whoever they’re approaching now knows they’re here.

 _Shit_.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re sure, John?” Felicity asks as she pulls the arrows from the target, pleased they’re all almost exactly where she aimed them. She didn’t miss once.

“ _Yup. I just found their car. They’re approaching on foot_.”

Felicity sighs at the report as she turns to Roy. “I guess that makes sense. Roy just told me a trip wire was severed at the perimeter.” She contemplates Roy before she shoves the arrows into her quiver and flings it over her shoulder. “We’re going to check it out.”

“ _Wait for me, Felicity_ ,” John objects.

“They’re human, John. We’re obviously not zombies. And if they turn out to be the abducting-type, you can cut them off at the car.” It’s sound logic, even if John wants to argue about it. She can use the bow well enough to persuade them she’s a threat, even if she won’t actually hit them. They don’t know that after all.

She clicks her comm off as she starts for the wall and the severed wire with Roy on her heels. Looking up at the overcast skies threatening rain, she wraps her scarf over her head to give her some semblance of protection. Considering all Roy has is his ratty sweatshirt, she thinks she’s at least better off than him.

Felicity had wanted cameras in the forest around their compound, but the power drain would have been too much for the solar generated they’d painstakingly assembled to provide as much power as possible. There had been some panels on the property, but the rest had been dragged from nearby estates and Felicity couldn’t justify the power usage.

Instead they had wires set up in quadrants. So they knew the vague area their visitors were in. Roy was right to come get her, too. They didn’t want the whole compound going into a frenzy at human visitors.

She and Roy slow their approach as they near the wire. She draws an arrow and aims it ahead of her. Beside her, Roy adjusts his grip on one of the few guns they still have with ammo in it.

Felicity frowns as they reach the spot and find a hulking man with an eye patch cleaning off what looks unexpectedly like a sword.

His one good eye lifts to them and he chuckles. “I was expecting a little more of a threat.”

Roy bristles at the tone, lifting the gun more aggressively. “Who are you?”

“Careful where you point that thing, Kid. You could lose a hand.”

An arrow comes flying from behind the man, so close to his shoulder that it almost nicks it, but instead it just knocks the gun from Roy’s hand and sends it toppling into the bed of leaves. Felicity reacts in surprise, sending an arrow flying back without a thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

He and Slade devised this plan under the impression they would be confronted by hulking guards. So the last thing he expects are two slight figures. One wears a baggy red hoodie with the hood thrown over his face, the other a scarf that manages to obscure their face. It’s the one in the hoodie that pulls the gun so Oliver focuses on him - the bigger threat.

Something about the other figure nags the back of his mind but the shaky hand holding the bow tells him she isn’t much of a threat. So he’s surprised when an arrow comes flying directly at his position as soon as he knocks the gun from the boy’s hand.  

Instinct pushes him into action. He executes a roll and comes up kneeling with his arrow aimed at the other archer when her words jar him from his fighting mindset.

“Oh God! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to! Are you okay? I didn’t hit you did I!”

She practically throws her bow on the ground in haste to distance herself from it, the movement dislodging the scarf to reveal dirty blonde hair. “I swear I didn’t mean to do that! We’re not here to fight you.”

The boy groans and Oliver realizes he should have figured it out as soon as he saw the red hoodie. Because, really, if one thing could survive the apocalypse it would be Roy’s damn sweatshirt.

Which can only mean one thing.

“Felicity.” He and Roy speak at the same time.

Honestly, Oliver’s not a hundred percent sure he’s spoken. His voice comes out cracked and husky, like he hasn’t had water in days. And he’s having a little trouble breathing right now as he takes in her face, those blue eyes that were imprinted on his eyelids each time he closed his eyes.

Of course she’s different now and it’s no wonder he didn’t recognize her immediately. Her hair, which used to be an immaculate blonde curtain is pulled back from her face haphazardly in tight braid and it’s longer than she ever used to wear it. Her nails lack the constant rainbow of colors she used to boast. And her eyes – the same eyes he remembers – now hold a weariness he wishes wasn’t there.

But it’s still her: the woman with the kind heart who couldn’t hurt a fly, the woman who would do anything to defend her family, the love of his life.

“Well, we weren’t actually going to hurt them, Roy,” Felicity counters, shooting him and Slade a bright smile in an attempt to alleviate their nerves.

Oliver’s lips tick up. No, she hadn’t heard him, but getting to see her like this...it’s as if he never left. Her and Roy always bickered like siblings, not the cousins that they were.

Slade, however, i had heard him. “Felicity?” He asks as he sidles up to Oliver. “You know this girl?”

He nods, without ever taking his eyes off her as she and Roy converse in whispers.

Suddenly, it hits him that all he wants to do is sweep her into his arms and kiss her like he’s imagined countless times in the past two years. His feet decide to move before the thought has fully formed in his mind.

 _“Ughhhhhhh_.”

They all freeze at the sound, unmistakable in a world where half the population could only moan in just that way. There was a man back in Hong Kong who swore he could understand them, that the zombies were just talking really slowly, but Oliver had never let a zombie live long enough to test that theory.

Now, it’s no different than those outings in Hong Kong. Oliver’s bow is drawn and pointing at the threat in an instant, his body positioned in front of Roy and Felicity as much as possible.

Releasing the arrow should be easy. Oliver’s done it thousands of times, killed hundreds of zombies with this bow, but now he freezes at the sight before his eyes, a sight he thought he had been prepared for, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

“ _Mom?_ ” It escapes in a whisper, a plea that his eyes are betraying him, that both his parents couldn’t have succumbed to the same terrible existence.

But the creature before him is clearly not his mother. Moira Queen was immaculate in life. There was never a hair out of place, a situation she wouldn’t face with dignity or a person she couldn’t send crawling away in fear. The monster before him is haggard, unkempt and bloodthirsty as it staggers toward him.

“What are you doing, kid?” Slade demands. “Shoot the damn thing.”

His hand cramps up from holding back the shot, but Oliver can’t bring himself to release the arrow.

“Damn it,” Slade curses, reaching for his sword.

There’s movement on Oliver’s other side and suddenly an arrow thuds into the center of Moira’s head. For a moment, she stands still, stuck in the moment like someone froze their lives. But the illusion is broken a second later when the body falls forward to land face down on the ground.

Oliver lowers his bow, releasing the tension in the string and un-nocking the unused arrow. With Slade, he turns to look at Felicity. While Slade’s eyes hold a new respect, Oliver wishes like hell he could have found it in him to take the shot so she wouldn’t’ve had to.

“Shit, Blondie,” Roy whispers.

Felicity lowers her bow slowly, face pale but she doesn’t turn to throw up. That’s his girl: strong, through and through. “Leave the arrow. Let’s head back to the Compound.”

Roy, Oliver and Slade fall in behind her without speaking. It’s a morbid party, but Oliver knows the walk isn’t far. It’s long enough that if a zombie had triggered the trap, their group – however large it might be – would have time to prepare for an attack. It’s smart.

Roy glances back curiously a couple times, but Oliver avoids eye contact. As much as he would love a reunion, the middle of the woods after his girlfriend shot his zombie mother doesn’t sound very appealing.

The walls that surrounded the Queen property have been built higher with what looks to be wood. It’s impressive, to say the least and Felicity leads them straight to a door set into the wall. It’s only then that she turns back to the group.

She faces them with an uneasy but determined set to her face. “I supposed we should exchange names before we let you into our compound.”

Slade snorts. “Well, you’re Felicity and the kid is Roy.”

Oliver bites back a smirk as Felicity levels Slade with a glare. The man doesn’t back down, but he also just shrugs and says:

“Slade Wilson.”

Felicity stares at him a moment longer before she turns her stern focus to Oliver.

He swings his bow over his head so that it lays across his body and, with both hands now free, he lowers the green hood over his head, stepping deliberately closer, focused entirely on her. Roy moves to get between them, but Oliver’s only focus is the blue of Felicity’s eyes, begging her to recognize him.

She _has_ to.

Her lips part slowly as her eyes widen in shock, the tension leaving her body in a rush as she recognizes him. She’s moving and in his arms before either of them can form a single coherent word.

As if it hasn’t been two years since he held her, Oliver’s arms wrap around her waist, pulling her into him, holding her up off the ground and pressed flush against him. Her arms clutch at his shoulders and head as if she could possibly pull him closer.

Tears run down his face as he presses it into her shoulder, breathing in a scent that’s all Felicity. When she finally pulls back, he follows her, leaning in for a light kiss. It’s more of a press of his lips against hers.

It feels weird to kiss her when a beard covers the lower half of his face and Oliver wishes they had taken the time to clean up before they got here, a weird thought to have in the middle of a zombie apocalypse to say the least, but all those thoughts disappear when he pulls back and the first words out of Felicity’s mouth are:

“I knew I’d see you again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~


	5. Part V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last and final installment of "As Our World Falls apart! 
> 
> Beware: there will be smut. It is my first attempt at it, so please be forgiving.

** **

**Part V:**

_Oliver’s home. Oliver’shomeoliver’shomeoliver’shome._

Felicity’s fairly certain her brain broke and is now suck repeating the two words: _Oliver’s home_.

It doesn’t seem real. It’s like she pulled him out of a dream and BAM. But he was there in the woods. She held him in her arms and breathed him in. He was as solid and living as she was. Felicity ceases her pacing.

Someone has to tell Thea.

It can’t be her. God, she’s a mess. She’s pacing a hole in the floor right now as she waits for Oliver to clean up. He’d paused when they entered his old bedroom, glancing at the messy bed and computer guts around the room with a small smile, and pulled her in for another kiss, this one slightly less chaste than the first.

Felicity would have been content to keep him close, to keep her hands on him if only to convince herself that it wasn’t a dream, but Oliver had extricated himself with a grin and a promise to be right back.

That was nearly fifteen minutes ago, but it feels like a lifetime as she resumes her pacing of the room and debates calling Thea over the comms to tell her of this development.

Then again, Roy’s probably waiting at the gate to tell her. Maybe she should join him...

All coherent thought vacates Felicity’s brain as the door to the bathroom opens with a rush of steam and a gloriously half-dressed Oliver Queen. His hair had gone from startlingly long to unrecognizably short, his beard trimmed down to a devastating five o’clock stubble.

Her feet carry her over the carpet until they bring her to a sudden stop just out of his reach. She doesn’t know what she wants to say, but it gets stuck in her throat anyway as her eyes lower to the scars that litter his bare chest.

Felicity moves forward slowly, her hand raised tentatively until it rests against warm skin. There are more muscles on him than she remembers. Everything she sees, it’s his journey mapped on his body, everything that it took for him to get back to her. Her hand slides up his chest until she’s cupping his cheek, the stubble rough under the pads of her fingers.

“Hey,” she whispers, her worry dissipating with the new contact. He’s here, and real.

“Hey.” Large, rough hands cup her face, thumbs stroking her cheeks. “I missed you.”

She presses up onto her toes, sealing their lips together. It’s not what she wants. She wants so much more than just this chaste contact. Her lips part in an open offer and Oliver happily takes advantage. An arm snakes around her waist, pulling her up and against his bare chest as her arms wrap around his neck.

Felicity loses herself in the kiss, in Oliver – his scent, his taste, his feel. Her hands slip down his shoulders, fingers digging in and massaging the muscles under her hands. Her actions prompt him into action. His hands slide down her body, a caress that wreaks havoc on her heart rate and her breathing. It’s been two years since she’s felt his touch and now it’s driving her crazy.

He crouches slightly as his hands come to rest on her thighs and he lifts her as he straightens back to his full height. Felicity squeaks at the sudden change in height, her legs wrapping around his waist as she clings to him even more.

She pulls back just enough to get a good look at his face, in awe at the adoration in his eyes. Her hands move back up to cup his face as Oliver walks them through the room without breaking her gaze. They stay balanced on a knife’s edge as Oliver stops at the edge of the bed.

A strangled sound escapes her throat before the moment breaks and they come crashing back together. Their mouths mash together, a combination of lips tongue and even a little teeth. Oliver cradles her head as he lowers them to the bed. The strength of the act sends further tremors down her spine and her hands coast over his chest, her nails dragging over the muscles and earning her a growl against lips.

Oliver’s hands find their way under her shirt, running over smooth skin and leaving a path of fire in their wake. Felicity lifts up to pull the shirt over her head, tossing it away before she falls back on the bed and stares up at him.

He gazes down at her reverently, hands skimming her body just as his eyes did.

Felicity reaches up to interlace her fingers behind his neck as he sighs. “I love you. I thought about you every day.”

She hums in contentment as she pulls him back down for a kiss. “I love you too.”

Slade is probably waiting for Oliver downstairs, standing in awkward silence with Digg. Thea’s going to want to see Oliver as soon as she gets back, which means she should stop this now. She should at least slow them down, but as soon as it crosses her mind, Oliver does that thing with his tongue that drives her crazy just as his hands slip into her pants and every thought in her head scatters like leaves on a fall breeze.

There’s nothing but the two of them in this moment.

“Oliver!”                                                        

He groans, pressing his face into Felicity’s shoulder at the shout of his name from somewhere other than the woman in front of him. Felicity bites her bottom lip as she tries to hold back a laugh at the predictability of their situation.

“I’d forgotten how much of a cockblock she could be,” Oliver grits out as he lifts himself off Felicity, pulling his hand from her pants slowly.

Felicity can’t help it. She starts laughing. It’s nowhere near appropriate, and honestly not her initial reaction, but she thought she had lost this: the intense make out sessions with her adoring boyfriend, getting interrupted by this overeager sister, just getting lost in Oliver at all. And it feels so good to have it back, to get the chance to relive those moments of happiness somewhere other than her dreams.

“Well, there was a reason you moved out of your parent’s house,” she adds with a smirk.

The smile on his face catches Oliver by surprise, like he hadn’t had a reason to smile in so long, which Felicity guesses is probably true: he hasn’t had a reason to smile. His eyes rake over her naked upper body, full of promise about what will happen the next time they’re alone.

God, Felicity wishes it could be now. That look in his eyes just does so much for her.

Yet, unfortunately, they both know Thea will not be kept waiting. She’s already coming closer, her feet almost outside the door.

And Felicity should probably find her shir-

“Oliver!” The brunette bursts into the room and runs for her brother as soon as she lays eyes on him, ignorant of Felicity’s state of dress as she’s completely focused on the only living family member she has left. “You came back.”

Felicity searches the room for her top and finds it on the floor halfway to the door. It’s in her hands when she hears the deep chuckle from the doorway and looks up to find Slade shaking his head in amusement.

“Kid hasn’t even been home an hour and he’s already got a girl in his bed. I didn’t realize he was that much of a player.”

John shakes his head in disapproval, but Felicity knows him well enough to spot the glint in his eye. He’s happy for her, which is something.

“Really, Lis?” Roy asks, hand lifted to cover his eyes. “What did you do? Jump his bones as soon as he got out of the shower?”

She can feel her face turn violently pink. And even if she couldn’t, Slade’s booming laugh would have been enough of a hint.

“So, Tommy and Thea are back,” she tries awkwardly to steer them to another topic of conversation, one that will move away from the topic of her undress.

“Yup. Tommy’s with the other two friendlies, getting them checked out by the Doc.” Roy slowly lowers his hand just in case Felicity hasn’t finished putting on her shirt. “But they seem good.”

“Good,” Felicity repeats. Her mind casts around for another subject and then comes to a nice stop as warmth from a familiar hand meets the skin at the small of her back. Oliver was the only person who ever did that specifically for her. It was his thing – to be inconstant contact with her – and that touch never failed to calm her down.

She turned and looked up into those familiar baby blues, happy he’d also taken the moment to put on a shirt. She was far less likely to “jump his bones” as Roy said when he was wearing the appropriate amount of clothes.

“Tommy’s here?” he asks quietly.

Felicity nods to him with a smile.

“Laurel?”

She doesn’t need to answer the question. The truth is in her eyes. He just nods solemnly and uses the hand on her back to push her from the room, leading the group along with a little prodding. Felicity sinks back into the touch.

And if she steps a little closer to him so she can keep in constant contact, who could blame her?

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Can you believe this place?” Sara whispers in awe, staring up at the stone side of Queen Mansion in awe.

Oliver frowns at her from across the picnic table set up on the lawn where there’s enough room for the fifty some odd people living in the compound to eat together. “Sara, you’ve seen the mansion before.”

“Yeah,” she mutters, “I know, but have you seen what it’s _become_?” Awe fills her voice and her eyes take on that transparent nature she gets from time to time. “It’s the castle on a cloud! A safe haven in a world of evil. And everything glistens!”

She holds the metal fork up in front of her face, captivated by the silver gleam.

“She’s finally lost it,” Slade declares, eyes narrowed on her.

Shado shoots him a look and gently takes the fork from Sara’s grasp. “It’s just a fork.”

“But it’s _shiny_ ,” Sara insists with a sad smile. “Nothing on the boat was shiny.”

Well, no one can argue with that. In fact, they all drift into silence at that cunning revelation. It was true in the strictest sense of the word. The boat had been dingy, dull, and ugly, and this place was anything but. And Oliver wasn’t a fool. He’s willing to get it’s all Felicity’s handiwork. Or at least her leadership.

Just like he has no doubt she’s the one that’s been staying in his room.

“So where’s your girl?” Shado asks, interrupting the group brooding session. “Slade told me you were all over each other almost as soon as you got here.”

Oliver resists the urge to glare at the soldier beside him as he leans back in the seat. “She had to talk to some people.” He shrugs.

“So are you going to propose?”

He blinks at her and Slade chokes on the sip of water he had been taking.

Oliver doesn’t have an answer to that can of worms. His gut jumps at the idea, practically shouting an enthusiastic YES. But his brain wonders how such an idea could ever come to fruition in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

“What?” Slade sputters. “Where would you even get a question like that from?”

Shado explains it to him with her never-ending supply of patience. “He’s carried that ring around with him for two years. He might as well use it for its intended purpose.”

“And do what with it? It’s not like a marriage now would mean anything?”

Oliver doesn’t want to get in the middle of this fight. Because it’s not really about him asking Felicity a question. It’s about them in a roundabout way, and about _their_ relationship.

But Shado’s question does get him thinking.

Because the ring is still in his pocket, where it’s been for the past two years. Yet he’s always known that his pocket wasn’t its final resting place. No, this ring was meant for a certain finger and Shado’s right: he should ask her.

It doesn’t matter when or even if the wedding ever happens. All that matters is the commitment he’s making to her, a commitment he kept over the past two years. He wouldn’t be with anyone but her ever again in his life. He knows it with shocking certainty. And that just answers the question of why he should do this.

He needs to do this to show her – and the rest of the world – that they could make it through anything and come out stronger on the other side. He’d made it back home to her after all.

“You’re right,” he says out loud, startling Slade and Shado from their debate with matching: “ _What?_ ”s

Oliver ignores them, instead sliding from the table and moving toward a far table where Felicity crouches next to a little girl who can’t be more than nine. She stares up at Felicity with large, adoring eyes. Felicity smiles widely at her, even though her finger taps out a nervous pattern on the table’s surface.

As he approaches with single-minded determination Tommy and Thea send him matching curious looks, but he ignores them.

The little girl looks up at him when he reaches them, her mouth falling open in shock as she has to crane her neck straight up to get a good look at him. He offers her a little smile and a wink as his other hand reaches out and plays with the end of Felicity’s ponytail.

She twists to look up at him, rising from her crouch as she regards him curiously. “He-“

Oliver cuts her off with a kiss, his hands gently cupping her face, because God, he loves her so much and he can’t bear to even consider going another two years without her.

Despite the gentle chastity of the kiss, Oliver’s breathless as he pulls away and whispers: “Marry me, Felicity.”

Her mouth falls open in surprise as her eyes search his for the barest hint of sincerity and she sounds every bit as breathless as him when she finally speaks. “Oliver...”

The ring is in his hand and he lowers himself to one knee. She hastily stops him before he can settle on the ground before her. He lets her exert pressure on his arm as he stands, the ring held between them.

“What are you doing?” She asks in a loud whisper, eyes wide.

He lifts the hand holding the ring. “Proposing to my girlfriend, like I’ve wanted to for the last two and a half years.”

His declaration stuns her into silence, a feat in itself. Her fingers lift to the piece of jewelry, skimming it before her hands cup his one.

“I was going to ask when I got back. I had a plan.” He has to take a deep breath as the could-have-beens flash through his head. “And I don’t care about the when or where. I’ve been carrying this ring around for two years, and, if you’ll have me, I really think it belongs with you, just like my heart.”

He doesn’t know where the words come from, but they’re the truest he’s ever spoken. The woman in front of him is his light, his love. He wouldn’t change that for anything. With her, surviving this damned apocalypse seems like the only possible outcome.

Especially when she finally draws a breath to say, “Yes!”

Oliver doesn’t remember ever being as happy in his life as the moment he finally slips the ring on Felicity’s ring finger before pulling her into a kiss, as if to seal the deal.

He also can’t recall another time him kissing a girl was accompanied with excited cheers and claps. Even if he could, Oliver wouldn’t want to remember it, because it pales in comparison to this moment, with this extraordinary woman who just agreed to spend the rest of her life with him, whatever that means in this strange new world.

Oliver would be content to pass the whole night with Felicity in his arms, but unfortunately the act of proposing in front of the entire compound means everyone – literally everyone – wants to congratulate the bride-to-be. There are those who shake his hand and tell him how lucky he is, like he isn’t already aware, but mostly Oliver finds himself looking over the heads of the crowd to where Felicity is surrounded by the people she’s taken in, the people who look up to her and admire her for the wonderful woman she is.

He’s lucky she said yes. And Oliver doesn’t just mean right now, to his proposal. No, he means back when he asked her on that first date all those years ago. It had all led them to this moment.

“Congratulations, Kid,” Slade comments with a hearty slap on his back. “Didn’t see that coming.”

Shado whacks Slade in the arm, a universal signal to be nice. “I’m happy for you, Oliver. She seems like a wonderful woman.”

“She really is.” Her eyes meet his through the crowd, the heat in her gaze sends blood rushing to his groin. It’s painful – to have her so close and yet out of reach – but it’s an exquisite pain that he knows will be relieved as soon as they can get away from this crowd.

He’s not the only one burning.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Felicity is done with people: she’s done with the congratulations and the awe over her ring. She wants to be back in Oliver’s room without any interruptions and all the time she could want to rediscover Oliver’s body.

She winds her way back to him, slipping her hand into his as she presses against his side and rises on her tiptoes to accept a lingering kiss. It does nothing to curb the lust that’s been simmering under the surface of her skin since Thea’s interruption hours ago. The stormy look in Oliver’s eyes tell her he’s having the same problem.

“God, you two are sickening,” Tommy groans. “Remind me why I wanted you back?”

Felicity rolls her eyes at the insincere question, hugging Oliver’s arm close to her body. Oliver chuckles at the question.

Tommy’s joking look slips into a sad smile. “I’m just happy for you two.”

“Thanks, Tommy,” Felicity whispers as she drops Oliver’s hand to pull Tommy into a hug.

“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters back at her.

Felicity pulls back and Tommy turns to his best friend and pulls him into an equally sound hug. Oliver falls back to wrap an arm around Felicity again. The sides of their bodies press together. It’s as close as they can be in public while still being appropriate. Hell, its borderline inappropriate right now as far as Felicity is concerned because while the contact might have soothed her lust initially, now the constant touching is driving her steadily crazy with want.

With a roll of his eyes, Tommy excuses himself with a parting reminder: “Don’t you have to check the solar panels?”

Oliver’s fingers tighten on the curve of her hip, like he doesn’t want to let her go, but what Tommy just offered them is an out, an excuse to leave their dinner that spontaneously turned into a party with his proposal.

“Come on.” Felicity intertwines her fingers with Oliver’s, pulling him after her as she departs the party with less decorum than she probably should.

She yanks him along around the corner. For appearance’s sake, she waits until they’ve rounded the solar panels before spinning on her heel and curling her fists into his jacket. The leather is supple under her hands, but it’s still one-too-many layers.

Her eyes are frozen on his chest. They’re alone now: she can act. Yet she can’t seem to lift her eyes from the middle of his chest. With instantaneous certainty, Felicity knows as soon as she lifts her eyes to his, she’ll be a goner. Forget decorum, forget the terrible impressions she could make on young people who look up to her...

Oliver made her want to forget everything and just focus on him. It had always been that all-consuming kind of love that leaked into everything, the I-need-you-so-bad-I-have-to-have-you-now kind of love, the do-anything-for-you-until-my-last-breath kind of love. Once upon a time, Felicity worried about losing herself in him until she realized it wasn’t just her who got lost in him, but that he got lost in her and they were better together.

A firm, calm hand tilts her chin up until she meets Oliver’s eyes. His thumb caresses her lower lip until her mouth falls open. His eyes are full of something unidentifiable as he looks at her. He makes no move to close the distance between them, just runs his eyes over her face and his thumb over her lip.

“We should head upstairs,” he whispers, voice husky.

Nodding eagerly, Felicity releases her clenched fists and smooths out the wrinkles.  Of course, she just ends up caressing his chest.

“Felicity,” he growls.

She giggles, but agrees, turning back to the house and the path that runs directly from the old gardens to Oliver’s room. Halfway up the back staircase, Felicity can’t take his hand running up and down her side. The wall makes a satisfying thud as she shoves Oliver against it. Her mouth finds his unerringly and for a few minutes she forgets their destination or their purpose. It’s not like anyone is coming up the stairs anyway.

“Oliver,” she whines when he steps back, but he walks backwards up the stairs. The heat in his eyes keeps her from complaining any further, especially when he then presses her into the wall at the top of the stairs.

Arousal races through Felicity this time, roaring in her blood sounds like a train thundering past. Her whole world focuses to this one point. It’s almost as if the zombie apocalypse never happened.

“Eeep!”

Oliver chuckles at the sound that erupts from her mouth as he effortlessly lifts her into the air. He takes three confident steps before pinning her to the opposite wall with his hips. They moan in tandem at the friction. Felicity’s legs lock behind his back to keep Oliver in place as she grinds against him.

He growls against her lips before pushing off the wall and walking the last staggering steps into his room. Her hands lift the hem of her shirt as the door closes behind them. Eager to help, Oliver braces himself on the door, sparing a second to lock the door as Felicity slings her shirt into the rest of the room.

Rough hands run up her sides to cup her breasts. Oliver leans forward and kisses her deeply, his hands running around to caress her back as he thrusts against her. “You’re so beautiful.”

Felicity laughs breathlessly as he trails kisses down her neck. “With no make-up and in tattered clothes?”

“You’re always beautiful to me,” he tells her between kisses, unsnapping her bra with a single hand before he leans up and yanks his shirt off.

“Talk about beautiful.”

She’s preoccupied with using her hands to memorize the muscles of Oliver’s chest. His laugh is the only hint that she’s spoken out loud.  She bites her lip but can’t bring herself to apologize as she leans forward to press kisses against his chest. It’s awkward from their positioning and Oliver pulls them from the door and walks them back to the bed and lays her down.

His hands squeeze her ass, rubbing her against his hardened cock to hear her whimper and moan, just like he remembered she would. He smiles against the skin of her shoulder and moves up to nip as her ear.

“I love the sounds you make,” he whispers in a throaty voice as his hand runs down her stomach to the closure of her jeans. It makes it hard for Felicity to think clearly, not that she had been doing well so far.

Oliver cups her over her underwear, adding pressure until Felicity’s voice hitches and her fingers dig into his shoulder. He increased the pressure until it became unbearable and she cries out his name.

“Oliver!” Desperate, she fumbles in her attempt to unbuckle his belt. “We’ve both got too many clothes on.”

“Then let’s fix that.” Oliver stands and quickly discards the rest of his clothes.

An elbow props her up as she enjoys the show before her. Her other hand slides into her pants to pick up where Oliver left off, except she’s not such a tease. Her fingers slide through slick warmth to circle her clit, her hips moving in time with her hand.

She squeaks when Oliver grabs her legs and pulls her to the edge of the bed. Eyes locked on hers, he blindly unbuckles her pants and pulls them off in a swift motion. He pulls the hand from her opening and lifts it to his lips, sucking her juices off her fingers.

“Fuck,” Felicity mutters.

Oliver grins. “Let me take care of that for you.”

His fingers slip into her folds without warning. He circles her clit a few times before dipping a single finger into her entrance. Felicity gasps, her legs falling further apart as a second finger joins the first.

He ducks his head, placing open-mouthed kisses on every surface of skin he can reach. Felicity whimpers at the assault on her senses, overwhelmed in the best possible way.

“Oliver, please,” she cries, clutching at his head and shoulders.

“Please what?” he asks her skin, eyes teasing as he looks up at the passion written in every line of his face.

She groans, exasperated and then in passion as he curls his fingers inside her. “You know what I want.”

“I want you to tell me.”

Felicity bites her lip as Oliver holds her right on the brink of ecstasy with his talented fingers.

He rises from the tops of her breasts back to her ear. “Tell me, and I’ll let you come.” His fingers twitch inside her and Felicity feels herself grow wetter.

“I want you inside me,” she pants, a hand moving down to stroke him.

He shudders against her, eyes closing as he thrusts into her hand with a groan. His hand slips from her and Felicity uses the moment to roll them over so she’s straddling him. She runs her hands over the contours of his chest, tracing every scar before leaning down to press a kiss to each one.

Oliver groans as she moves down his body. “I thought you wanted me inside you.”

She smiles against his skin. “That was before I had you at my mercy.”

“Is that so,” he asks. He attempts for lightness, but the rest of his sentence is cut off in a groan as Felicity strokes his cock, eyes wide and innocent.

She lifts up on her knees, continuing to pump him as she rises above him. They hold each other’s gaze for what feels like eons before she slowly impales herself on him with a whimper that turns into a gasp as he fills her completely.

His hands latch on to her hips as she rocks against him, getting comfortable. Felicity leans forward, so her chest is flush with Oliver’s and kisses him deeply, their tongues tangling as she starts to move with intent.

Oliver thrusts shallowly up, but lets her set the pace.

Tremors start to wash over Felicity, breaking her rhythm as she climaxes and loses all coherent thought of her surroundings. Suddenly their positions are flipped and Oliver pounds into her, her body shattering into a thousand pieces as her orgasm rolls into a second.

Sensations continue to assault her until Oliver comes buried deep inside her, collapsing breathless on top of her. His weight, although heavy, feels comforting, and she misses it as he pulls out of her.

Stretched out next to her, Oliver drags her closer and wraps his arms around her as his breathing slows. Sleep threatens to overtake Felicity as she snuggles into his side. He’s here and this is real.

If it’s a dream she really hopes she never wakes up.

~~~~~~~~~~

For the first time in years, Oliver wakes up slowly with the comforting weight of Felicity’s head on his chest and he can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips as his hand drifts up from the smooth expanse of her back to brush her tumultuous blonde curls out of her face.

He missed this in the past two years. He would dream about it occasionally, but would always wake up disappointed and alone, reaching for her. In the morning light, she looks angelic with her halo of blonde hair. It’s not as light as she used to dye it, but more a sun-bleached color that compliments her more.

Oliver settles back into the pillow, content to fall back into sleep. Whatever comes next, whatever this apocalypse throws at them, they can face it.

Together.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad it's over? Felling like there's some unanswered questions? This might be the end of my OFBB, but there will be a sequel (or two) coming in the next couple months. I'm not quite ready to leave this world, are you? 
> 
> Comment/bookmark/leave kudos to let me know what you thought! 
> 
> Also, you can follow me on tumblr:   
> username: writewithurheart   
> blog: War Against Reality

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, Bookmark, Comment, if you like it!! Feedback is uplifting to the soul!


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